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Signs look ominous for Benitez's fragile charges

AFTER the excitement of Barcelona, Bayern and a Madrid derby over the past couple of nights it’s back to earth with a bump as Thursday gives us a set of ho-hum Europa League fixtures.

All is not lost, though, because the colourful figure of Rafael Benitez is back in the spotlight as his Napoli side do their best not to throw away a 4-1 lead from the away leg of their quarter-final clash with Wolfsburg.
Surely nothing can go wrong for Rafa, can it? They’re 1-100 to make the semis after all.
Well yes, but pundits in Italy have shown that Napoli’s results go up and down according to the amount of media speculation around their boss.
At the start of the season the papers were full of a supposed rift between Rafa and club owner Aurelio De Laurentiis – Napoli went out of the Champions League in the qualifiers and dropped seven points in their first three matches.
They picked themselves up, got some decent results on the board in the autumn, but then there were stories that Benitez wanted to go back to Liverpool and all of a sudden Napoli went into the winter break with two wins in six.
In the spring it’s all been sweetness and light again, Napoli have won their last two league matches 3-0 and got that big win in Germany last week. What can possibly go wrong?
Oh no, what’s this? Rafa won’t sign on at Napoli and is talking about going to Man City? Napoli have lined up Sampdoria’s Sinisa Mihailovic to take over next season? Say no more, I’m lumping on Wolfsburg at 9-4.
If ever a team look like a bunch of fragile prima donnas who will lose the plot as soon as there’s a whiff of unrest, it’s this mob. No German team would allow themselves to get knocked off their stride. So thanks Rafa, for lining me up with an easy bet to set up my evening.
Incidentally, I see the Samp chairman says he wouldn’t hire Benitez unless he lost a bit of weight. Maybe that’s behind wanting to move from Naples to Manchester.

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