After a season spent across London on loan at Arsenal, Yossi Benayoun has returned to a very different Chelsea to the one he left behind.
At the end of August 2011, when the Israeli international captain signed a temporary deal with the Gunners, we had Andre Villas-Boas as our new manager and had just endured the frustration of a trophy-less campaign.
Fast forward to this summer and Benayoun has re-joined the European champions led by Roberto Di Matteo, albeit without some familiar faces of the 32-year-old's first season at Stamford Bridge. Among the first wave of players back training at Cobham, the midfielder has been working alongside new players like Eden Hazard, Marko Marin and Kevin De Bruyne, rather than some of the more established players who are either still on holiday or departed.
'Now I am back at Chelsea for pre-season, the hard part of football, and I'm trying to do my best in front of Robbie, so we will just have to see what happens in the future,' Benayoun said.
'A lot has happened since I was last here. Unfortunately it didn't work out with Andre Villas-Boas, results weren't good enough but Robbie took the team, and we won the FA Cup and Champions League. I kept in touch and it was just great to see the club winning these trophies.
'I was at home for the Champions League Final, as the next day I was joining up with the national team. It was amazing to watch and enjoy. When you thought Bayern would win it, suddenly Didier Drogba was there like always to score an important goal and of course I was so happy for the club, the players and the owner. Hopefully this season the club will win a few trophies again.'
During his time in north London, Benayoun scored six times in 25 appearances, helping Arsenal qualify for the Champions League by finishing above rivals Tottenham.
'First of all the most important thing was that I enjoyed my time with Arsenal, and football-wise, I can separate the season into two parts,' he explained.
'When you play more you enjoy it more and in the last few months of the season I played more and in important games, and I scored a few important goals so I finished on a high, and we had a strong finish. It was a good feeling, I was happy at the end of my time there, and the fans were very supportive of me.
'The club was happy to finish third. At the beginning of the season people were saying Arsenal would never be in the top four because we were 16th, 17th in the table, but there was a lot of quality in the team and we had a very good run. We did it in the end and it was important to finish above Spurs, because we all saw what happened after with the Champions League!'
The social media savvy may have noticed Benayoun in the news this week, when former Arsenal team-mate Andre Santos tweeted the 32-year-old saying he would see him at Gunners training on Monday, only for our man to respond the only way that would happen was if the Brazilian was carrying a picture of him. Santos, it seems, had forgotten Benayoun was only on loan.
'Andre Santos is one of my good friends, but didn't know I wasn't coming back!' he laughed. 'I think it took him a day or two to compute what was happening, he had been told before though, but I think he had just come home from Dubai and his head was still in the clouds!'
Fast forward to this summer and Benayoun has re-joined the European champions led by Roberto Di Matteo, albeit without some familiar faces of the 32-year-old's first season at Stamford Bridge. Among the first wave of players back training at Cobham, the midfielder has been working alongside new players like Eden Hazard, Marko Marin and Kevin De Bruyne, rather than some of the more established players who are either still on holiday or departed.
'Now I am back at Chelsea for pre-season, the hard part of football, and I'm trying to do my best in front of Robbie, so we will just have to see what happens in the future,' Benayoun said.
'A lot has happened since I was last here. Unfortunately it didn't work out with Andre Villas-Boas, results weren't good enough but Robbie took the team, and we won the FA Cup and Champions League. I kept in touch and it was just great to see the club winning these trophies.
'I was at home for the Champions League Final, as the next day I was joining up with the national team. It was amazing to watch and enjoy. When you thought Bayern would win it, suddenly Didier Drogba was there like always to score an important goal and of course I was so happy for the club, the players and the owner. Hopefully this season the club will win a few trophies again.'
During his time in north London, Benayoun scored six times in 25 appearances, helping Arsenal qualify for the Champions League by finishing above rivals Tottenham.
'First of all the most important thing was that I enjoyed my time with Arsenal, and football-wise, I can separate the season into two parts,' he explained.
'When you play more you enjoy it more and in the last few months of the season I played more and in important games, and I scored a few important goals so I finished on a high, and we had a strong finish. It was a good feeling, I was happy at the end of my time there, and the fans were very supportive of me.
'The club was happy to finish third. At the beginning of the season people were saying Arsenal would never be in the top four because we were 16th, 17th in the table, but there was a lot of quality in the team and we had a very good run. We did it in the end and it was important to finish above Spurs, because we all saw what happened after with the Champions League!'
The social media savvy may have noticed Benayoun in the news this week, when former Arsenal team-mate Andre Santos tweeted the 32-year-old saying he would see him at Gunners training on Monday, only for our man to respond the only way that would happen was if the Brazilian was carrying a picture of him. Santos, it seems, had forgotten Benayoun was only on loan.
'Andre Santos is one of my good friends, but didn't know I wasn't coming back!' he laughed. 'I think it took him a day or two to compute what was happening, he had been told before though, but I think he had just come home from Dubai and his head was still in the clouds!'
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