Gerard Houllier Critical Of His Successor Benitez
Rafa Benitez left Liverpool after a seventh placed finish last season and the man he succeeded has criticized him for leading the club into the decline and making the job difficult for the man who is going to succeed him now, Roy Hodgson.
Houllier left Liverpool in 2004 with mutual consent and was credited with helping Liverpool improve to a new level. During his time at the club, the club managed to win six trophies including a UEFA Cup, a UEFA Super Cup, an F.A. Cups and two League Cups. The Premier League title eluded him though and that was what led to his departure from the club. Almost instantly after Houllier left, Liverpool replaced him with Rafa Benitez, who joined Liverpool from the Spanish club Valenica.
Benitez was very successful initially, leading the Liverpool team to a UEFA Champions League victory over Italian giants, A.C. Milan in his first ever season. The following season Liverpool won the UEFA Super Cup and the FA Community shield and won another trophy in the form of the F.A. Cup, beating West Ham before he left last season due to a seventh place finish and hence a failure to deliver on his promise of finishing fourth in the league.
Houllier has controversially claimed that the Champions League victory belonged to him as much as it did to Benitez because he lay the foundation of that side, and indeed that season, as Liverpool qualified for the Champions League under his leadership. More importantly, twelve out of the fourteen players at the final in Istanbul were part of the team Houllier built when he was manager.
The Frenchman went on to claim that even the players in the Liverpool squad recognized his contribution to the team and when he went to the dressing room after the final in Turkey the players told him that it was his team which had won the Champions League trophy. Houllier added that after Benitez had been dismissed as the manager, a player messaged him saying that Benitez never managed to surpass Houllier.
The former Liverpool Coach accused Benitez of taking Liverpool backwards by making the team dependent on just two players, Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard, and taking Liverpool from a big four club to a seventh place finish. Benitez has also been criticized by some of his players such as Albert Riera and Yossi Benayoun. Riera’s criticism was directed at the Spaniard while he was still in charge. He accused Benitez of being unapproachable and not giving any reasons to his players for excluding them even when they performed well in training or matches.
Benayoun, on the other hand, accused Benitez of trying to shatter his confidence by telling him repeatedly that he wasn’t good enough and he didn’t understand why the fans wanted to see him playing. Benayoun has since moved to Chelsea, whereas Albert Riera was benched, leading to his omission from the Spanish World Cup squad.
Benitez has left Liverpool in a very bad shape and it is rather surprising that the Italian Champions Inter chose to appoint him as manager despite this. Whatever happens at Inter though, Benitez it seems has lost the respect of a number of his players and the man he succeeded after the shape he left the club in.
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