Pet hate

It is interesting that Chelsea fans, who Rafa Benitez has lashed out against this week for their relentless negativity regarding his appointment as 'interim manager', should demand his departure (on a regular basis), yet continue to use his diminutive. To write or shout “Benitez out” depersonalises the object of their disaffection, giving it the stiffness and remoteness that they feel towards him. But to use his pet name of Rafa and have banners saying ‘Rafa out!” or Rafa Benitez out” (and other signs of such ilk) sends a mixed message. To say “Rafael Benitez out” would reinstate the austere formality, demonstrating they have no attachment to him, though “Rafael out” would draw minds to Manchester United’s player and subsequent bafflement (solution: when abusing, don’t use first names on their own… ever).


It is reminiscent of when NATO opened their air-strike campaign against Serbia for its actions in Kosovo. The headline of The Sun (‘we loathe it’) was forthright in its stance: “Clobber Sloba!” Yet this was the name that friends and family of Slobodan Milosevic were apt to call the late Serbian strongman. The current bun was seemingly displaying a hitherto unknown affinity for the alleged war criminal, despite exhorting punishment upon him. How can this be squared? Did the newspaper’s editor have a contretemps at a cocktail party with the former Belgrade supremo? No, the people responsible for that headline were acting in the same manner as one of the teams in The Apprentice from 2011, who were ‘opening’ a Mexican-themed eatery and named it Caracas (the capital of Venezuela), that is, displaying baleful ignorance beyond their parochial worldview. 'Rafa' may have stuck in minds like Anthony 'Tony' Blair, but Chelsea fans though know the score and, if they are true in their profession of hate, have no excuse.