The truth behind Rafa’s dismissal at Liverpool
If it was simply a footballing decision, an in-depth analysis of where the Anfield club should be in the middle of their debt ridden power vacuum, for all his misdemeanours, faults, facts, guarantees, bizarre substitutions and dodgy full backs, Rafael Benitez would not have been walking out of the Anfield door with a massive pay out. Popular vote says, it was not simply football that did it for the Spaniard.
In fact it is the politics in the upper echelons of the club that is the mainstay of Rafa’s managerial career and the misfortune to fall prey to the entrapment by Tom Hicks and George Gillet. The Americans promised a spade and a shovel in the ground for the new stadium within 2 months of their arrival but they only dug a hole in which has engulfed Benitez. Make no mistake; with every financing deal that the Americans secured, he moved closer to the exit, his reputation inevitably suffered with every new transfer window and empty pockets. Not that Benitez walks away without blame but give credit where it’s due.
Martin Broughton, the man replacing Rick Parry, who was brought into the club from British Airways, while announcing the news of Rafa’s departure from the club, stressed the fact that football was behind the dismissal. Mind you it’s the same Broughton who could not attend Liverpool’s last home game of the season due to his allegiances with the London Blues (Mr Google can and will account for this). No one in their right mind would dispute Martin’s analysis of the disappointing season but this was just one nightmare after 5 seasons of steady progress and constant improvement. The man delivered Liverpool’s fifth European title in a stunning fashion, FA Cup a year later, another champions league final a year after and their best ever premiership finish one year later. Should he not be allowed one shot at redemption? Didn’t he deserve that much? But the circumstances at the club, many of them Rafa created, ensure that was almost an impossibility.
It was at the end of 2007 when Hicks and Gillet approached Klinsmann for the managerial post at Liverpool that brought the club supporters to the streets in support of their manager. On the back of 2 champions League finals, FA cup and a European Super cup, Rafa was untouchable in supporter’s eyes, not to mention the best bargains of premier league history that saw the arrivals of Pepe Reina, Javier Mascherano and Fernando Torres at the Kop.
The evening after the defeat to Milan in Athens brought the fist evidence of Rafa – the monster in Liverpool colours. He left the Estadio Mastella due to boardroom restrictions and interference on transfers, who can forget the infamous quote “I asked for a table and they brought me a lampshade." Earlier in his career he had a public fall out with Jorge Voldano at Real Madrid over his input to the youth team. And now he was raising concerns and frustrations inside Liverpool, transfer budgets, no progress on the promised new stadium, under achieving commercial operations and above all to be pressurized to walk shoulder to shoulder with teams who could afford to make 32.5 million pound mistakes on players: his protests were set to continue until he was shown the door.
Rafa’s driving factor was of course to bring improvement to his club. He consolidated his authority at the club when he secured a frugal deal without any release clause last season. It also gave him full control of a highly unproductive Liverpool youth academy and not to mention his triumph in the battle to throw out Rick Parry as the chief executive. Although all that gave the Spaniard immense power but at the same time made him susceptible if Liverpool failed. Given the financial situation at the club and a few expensive transfer mistakes provided a fatal concoction.
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