Premier League: Benitez is doomed without Chelsea fans' support

Chelsea fans show their displeasure at Benitez's appointment

Rafa Benitez endured a rude awakening as Chelsea boss when home fans booed him during the Blues' draw with Manchester City. Can things only get better for the Spaniard? Fat chance, says Ralph Ellis. 

If Rafa Benitez is feeling shocked at the treatment he got from Chelsea fans then he might fancy putting in a phone call to Alex McLeish.

"Tell me," he'll ask, after getting through a few pleasantries about the weather. "If you take over a club where all the fans don't want you, what can you do to win them back?" And then he'll be frozen by the answer: "Nothing, because you can't".

McLeish was the last man to take over a Barclays Premier League club in the face of furious protests from supporters, when he went from Birmingham to Aston Villa two summers ago. There were slogans painted on the training ground walls, there were protests outside the ground, there were angry threats to tear up season tickets.

And if it started badly, it gradually got worse. Even when his team pulled off big results, like winning at Chelsea, the local phone-ins were full of dire warnings that it wouldn't last. And when the results did go pear-shaped, when injuries and lack of quality in the squad began to bite, it turned positively sour. By the end of the season McLeish was sitting in the dug-out at Norwich listening to his own travelling fans chant the name of opposing manager Paul Lambert.

The fans got their man, but this season Lambert's record over 13 games amounts to two wins and four draws - six less points than McLeish had collected at the same stage. Yet after Saturday night's 0-0 draw with Arsenal it was plain that the new boss still has the Holte End on his side. That backing is one of the reasons why despite their poor record this season Villa are as short as 2.021/1 favourites to win tomorrow night's TV clash with fellow strugglers Reading.

McLeish at least expected the sort of poisonous atmosphere he walked into, and believed he could be big enough to handle it. Benitez, in contrast, was clearly shocked by the scale of protests and bile confronting him.

Football fans don't forget, or forgive, these days. At Stamford Bridge they are still bitter about the scorn Benitez poured onto their club for giving away blue flags to wave when Liverpool played them in the Champions League. They loved Roberto Di Matteo as the player who won them the last FA Cup final at the old Wembley, and then as the manager who gave them the Champions League last season. And they were willing to give him time, even if Roman Abramovich was not.

They also want some stability at their club, and not another "interim manager". In fact, that title alone should be a warning to Benitez  - he doesn't even have full support in the boardroom let alone from the fans. And when you are trying to sort out what is notoriously the most ego-laden dressing room in English football that is not a strong basis to work from.

The one thing on his side is the amount of talent in Chelsea's squad. The creative potential of Juan Mata, Oscar and Eden Hazard in midfield should ensure the club justifies current odds of 1.162/13 a top four finish to guarantee another Champions League season.

But in the short term it promises to be a bumpy ride, and Martin Jol's Fulham look an attractive price at 8.07/1 to upset things even more by winning Wednesday night's West London derby. Benitez might hope he can stabilise Chelsea's results, relight the fire in Fernando Torres, perhaps put a trophy on the table and earn himself a longer stay in the job. Fat chance. As McLeish could tell him, if the fans don't want you, it is never going to last.