Rafa embraces stopgap role

Rafael Benitez clasped the poisoned chalice that comes with being manager of Chelsea Football Club yesterday and made the astonishing claim that he was offered and accepted the job without even talking to the man who mixes the lethal potion; owner Roman Abramovich.

Benitez’s performance in front of the world’s media at Stamford Bridge was confident and charismatic, as you would expect of a man who won the Champions League with Liverpool, La Liga with Valencia and the Fifa Club World Cup with Inter Milan.

But the sense of incredulity at his appointment — in place of Roberto Di Matteo who had been ruthlessly sacked despite giving Abramovich the Champions League trophy — was heightened by a bizarre admission he has no idea what type of football he is expected to produce because he hasn’t even met the club’s owner let alone held discussions of what is expected of him during his six or seven months in charge as Chelsea’s ‘interim manager’.