Rafael Benitez got a raw deal last season.
Installed as Chelsea’s interim manager after the club’s tinkering owner relieved Roberto Di Matteo of his duties less than six months after winning the Champions League, the Spaniard was given his own interim tag by Roman Abramovic in the third week of November and immediately became the target of vicious abuse from supporters.
Banners with slogans such as "Rafa Out" and "We Don’t Want Rafa to be Our Gafa" were the norm at Stamford Bridge, and he was even the subject of a "Benitez Bingo" game that included spaces labelled "Stop-Gap," "Zonal Marking" and "Stupid Plastic Flags."
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And yet, the ex-Valencia, Liverpool and Inter Milan boss went calmly and effectively about his business, immediately slashing his new side’s defensive mistakes while blooding summer acquisitions Oscar and Eden Hazard into a midfield that by the spring was one of the most creative and entertaining on the continent.
A 10-match unbeaten run in all competitions to conclude the campaign saw Chelsea beat Arsenal to third spot in the Premier League table and quite nearly overtake Manchester City for second, and on May 15 they won their second European trophy in as many years when they beat Benfica in the Europa League final.
Benitez’ reward for what ended up being a successful, encouraging six months at Stamford Bridge was a cold shoulder from Abramovich, who replaced the 53-year-old with Jose Mourinho as soon as he could pry the club icon from his contract at Real Madrid.
Mourinho will oversee his first competitive match in his Chelsea return when the Blues welcome promoted Hull to the English capital on Aug. 18. They will go into that contest as the bookies’ favourite to win the Premier League (Ladbrokes has them 11/5 to finish atop the standings), will battle Bayern Munich in the European Super Cup on Aug. 30 and will kick off their Champions League group stage schedule in mid-September — all of it a gift left to Mourinho by Benitez.
Of course, one of the reasons why Chelsea is being so widely tipped to regain the Premiership title this season is Mourinho, himself. The cult of personality he brought to the club upon his first appointment nine years ago never really left, and each of the managers who followed him (Avram Grant, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Guus Hiddink, Carlo Ancelotti, Andre-Villas Boast, Di Matteo and Benitez) proved unable to win over a fan-base that, upon experiencing the Special One, could never give their hearts to another.
But the Mourinho of 2013 is not the Mourinho of 2004. The pepper-sprinkled hair is now almost completely grey; the famous Armani coat that graced many a technical area has been donated to a museum. Still special — he would never concede anything less — he has styled himself the "Happy One" upon his Stamford Bridge return — a more careful, mellower version of his former self.
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The football he will encourage stands to be happier, too.
Sometimes criticized for being overly pragmatic (perhaps even downright negative) in his initial spell at Chelsea, he will employ a rather more inventive, possession-based system in his comeback. Where in 2004-05 he had Claude Makelele and Tiago sitting deep in midfield and a pair of wingers supporting a lone centre-forward, in 2013-14 he will have Oscar, Hazard and Juan Mata spinning magic in front of central midfielders as adept at playing the ball as harassing the opposition.
Mourinho is one of the best at getting the most from the players at his disposal, and as many of those players are imaginative, attack-minded action-men, it follows that Chelsea 2.0 will be a far more enjoyable side to watch than its earlier version.
No doubt Mourinho will be given credit for this, and he’ll gladly take it if his side completes the season with some silverware to celebrate.
But Benitez’ influence should not be discounted. They say the Chelsea teams that won the title in 2010 and the Champions League in 2012 had Mourinho’s fingerprints all over them. By the same token, the one that lifts the trophy nine months from now could well bear a likeness to a manager abused by his support, disrespected by his superiors and run out of town like the menace he never was.
Jerrad Peters is a Winnipeg-based writer. Follow him on Twitter.