Whenever any news comes in about Chelsea’s captain John Terry, it becomes widely popular among all club fans, and this is exactly what seems to be happening right now. Recently, John Terry enjoyed an extended break which gave him enough time to get fit for Stamford Bridge club. Even Rafael Benitez is happy to see his captain got enough time to recover from his injuries and hoping he would definitely come back to his team very soon. Actually, his decision to retire from international soccer gave him much room to concentrate on club football; hence Benitez is counting on him for Chelsea’s busy schedule coming ahead. Taking about his injuries, he recently said, “Every time when a player is injured he needs time to come back. This break is important. He was training with us every day and improving his fitness. We had just five players so we could pay more attention to everyone. He was positive and it was positive in terms of the time we had with him. It is just a question of how many games can you play? We will have four games in nine days. It is the same for everyone. You can’t play all these games and be 100 per cent – not just him, everyone.”
Besides Terry, there is something which is worrying temporary manager the most and that a tide schedule nearby. Perhaps, this is the first time in his tenure as temporary manager that he would have to play two matches with a gap of less than 48 hours which is going to be very tough for his players who are already going through massive injuries. Cheese’s 54th game of current season will be its EPL clash at Southampton on Saturday afternoon, and on Money noon; they have to meet Manchester United in the FA Cup quarterfinal replay. Dismissing Chelsea’s claim of excessive stress, United said they also have to face a tide schedule which is more than their quarterfinalist as they would be travelling more than Chelsea. But since United has a comfortable 15 points’ lead, they would not be affected negatively by a long travelling schedule. Benitez said over this,
“We can’t play two different teams. I try to keep the level. The difference is that they are 15 points ahead, so maybe they can say, ‘OK, we do that and see what happens’. We can’t do that. We have to find a very competitive team for Southampton, with the other game in our head because we can’t forget we have just 48 hours.
“I don’t want to use this as an excuse because some people say, ‘oh, he’s making excuses’. No. he reality is that, because of their position in the table, they have an advantage and they will not have another competition … they are not in the Champions League. For them, it’s clear. The priority will be the FA Cup.”
So, let’s see how he tackles his first challenge as a manager of a busy club.