Rafael Benitez hints at Premier League return
Rafael Benitez spent six years in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/England-c749 with the Merseyside club, Liverpool. He was a popular choice amongst Liverpool fans and became an instant hero after leading the club to a remarkable 5th Champions League triumph in his first year in 2005.
However, he left the Anfield club after a disappointing season, when the club finished 7th in the league. He took over from Jose Mourinho at Inter Milan and left that position after only 6 months in charge due to some poor results and a breakdown
of relationship with the club hierarchy.
However, Benitez is now free to from work and he knows where his priorities lie.
“The priority is the Premier League,” said Rafael Benitez. “To have a project, a business plan, a methodology of what you want to do and how to improve a club. It has to be a good club.”
Rafa arrived at the club with very few top-level players but during his tenure, he did sign some http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Big-Players-c38635 for Liverpool. The likes of Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina are still at the club while fans favourites Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano are not
at the club anymore.
After winning the Champions League in 2005, Benitez led Liverpool to an FA Cup win in 2006, but since then Liverpool have not won any major trophy. In 2008-09 season, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Liverpool-c39809 finished 2nd with their highest-ever total of 86 points in the Premier
League. However, Xabi Alonso left the club next summer and was sorely missed.
Next season, Liverpool finished 7th and it was felt that the time was right to bring about a change in management as the club had failed to move in the right direction.
Rafa left for http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Inter-c39567 after mutually agreeing to leave Anfield. However, his time at San Siro did not go according to plan and although he won the Italian Super Cup and the World Club Championship, his fell out with Moratti and failure to sustain a title challenge
in the League resulted in his exit from Inter as well.
Liverpool fortunes have hardly changed since Benitez left. Roy Hodgson, who was appointed to take the club forward, experienced a torrid time at the club and Liverpool saw themselves reeling near the drop zone.
Now that Kenny Dalglish is in charge, Rafa believes he can prove to be the right man for Liverpool.
“It will be much better with Kenny because he knows the club and what the fans want, He can talk with the players and they will feel and understand what it means to be a Liverpool player,” told Rafa Benitez. “I think that Kenny has been a very good appointment
and hopefully, it will be successful.”
Sections of media have claimed that Rafa left an inept squad which was not capable of challenging for titles. However, Benitez denies that and believes that the problem does not lie with the quality of the players but rather with the mental strength.
“We know that we made some mistakes,” said Benitez. “We are not happy with some of the signings.”
However, he was adamant that majority of the team that is currently playing in the starting eleven is the team he left behind. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Dirk-Kuyt-c11348 are those players who played
regularly under Hodgson and now under Dalglish.
“The team is good, the value of the squad is really good and we were making mistakes but [also] signing fantastic players. We signed http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Yossi-Benayoun-c37520 and we had to sell if we wanted to buy new players,” said
Rafa in his defence.
Rafa now wants to return back to management, but with almost all the big clubs doing a satisfactory job, it looks unlikely that he will make a return to the Premier League anytime soon.
Tags: