RAFA BENITEZ walked out of Chelsea convinced he turned round many of the fans who greeted his arrival as interim boss with boos and derision.
The controversial Spaniard, almost certainly bound for Napoli, was never truly forgiven for barbed comments about Chelsea during his reign at Liverpool.But, after succeeding Roberto Di Matteo at Stamford Bridge, he won the Europa League and guided the Blues to third in the Premier League.
After calling time on his six months in charge with a 5-3 defeat against Manchester City here in America late on Saturday night, he insisted: “A lot of fans supported me in the end.
“Maybe some of them couldn’t change their minds. You can only win trophies at the end of the season. You cannot win them in the first month with a new team.
“You have to be patient but in football that’s more difficult. But we did our job and I hope everyone could enjoy it. We did what we had to do — that’s the main thing.
“If you have a group of players who you’ve been working with for a while, and they were doing well, it’s sad to go but, with the situation, I’m really pleased for them.
“They’ve grown and they will be much better next year. They have more experience and you can see the team was improving.”
While Jose Mourinho is all set to head back to West London, Benitez hopes to be back in work quickly with Serie A side Napoli leading the chase.
A swift appointment would seem to be some kind of reward for what he has achieved since arriving at Chelsea.
Benitez added: “I was just thinking about doing well in my own job and that’s all.
“You can analyse better than me, but two semi-finals, a trophy and top three — everybody was saying ‘You have to do this or that’... we did it.
“I have enjoyed it yes, especially when we were winning.
“But to see the players improving, the commitment during the whole season... I was really pleased.
“All I wanted to do was to do my job with a top side and to show people that we can still do well.
“They were a top group, I said at the beginning. We wanted to challenge for trophies and we did that.
“The circumstances were special but we still did our job as best as possible so I’m really pleased for everyone involved. my staff, players... everyone was pushing for us to do well.”
Asked about the Napoli job, Benitez revealed: “I want to be back in work quickly, yes.
“But I will go back to London and be with my family for a while.
“I have learned a lot of things. You have a lot of situations, new players, new staff, new challenges. A lot of things have been really good.”
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