“ISTAnBUL In 2005 WAS THE MOST EMOTIOnAL
FInAL EVER – MAYBE THE MOST EMOTIOnAL
FInAL THERE WILL EVER BE. PEOPLE SAY, ‘OH,
YOU WERE LUCKY’. nO. WE WERE nOT LUCKY”
strengthen the team, and the Spaniard faced an uphill battle to
nudge his side into mid-table. “When we got promoted, that was the
time to grow,” he says. “OK, we finished 10th, then 13th. It was fine
with the resources we had.”
Might a lesser manager have found themselves in a relegation
battle? “It was a relegation battle,” he says. “We didn’t win the first
few games, but we were consistent in doing things right, and in the
end we stayed up. The players fought until the end, and the fans were
behind the team. We had unity. That was our strength.”
This summer, though, his contract was coming to an end. Rumours
of an imminent takeover abounded, giving Benitez brief hope of a
sudden boost to his budget, allowing him to take Newcastle higher up
the table. But when that takeover hope faded, it became apparent
that he would be back in the same situation as the previous two
campaigns, with little prospect of taking the club forward under Mike
Ashley’s ownership.
“My idea was to grow; to compete, and to be sure we could
challenge,” explains Benitez. “But there was another vision, and that
was it. If you see the profit of the team in the last few years, we did
what we needed to do to be successful. After that, it’s up to him.
“I still love the city, the fans and the players. My last game as
manager was emotional: we won 4-0 at Fulham and the
supporters were singing my name at the end, trying to convince me
to stay. I have a lot of very good memories. I wish them and Steve
Bruce all the best. But I couldn’t stay there just trying to survive for
another year.”
After Benitez’s departure, Ashley spoke to a national newspaper
and suggested the manager departed only because of the higher
wages on offer in China. “I have to answer that because he knows it’s
not like that,” says Benitez. “I wouldn’t have stayed in the
Championship and said no to massive offers if I was just thinking
about that. I waited until the last minute this summer. But I don’t
want to create more mess around that situation by talking more
about it. I don’t want the fans thinking, ‘Rafa i s talking too much
about Newcastle’. Now’s the time to move forward.”OnE nIGHT In ISTAnBUL
Benitez may have made a new start in Asia, but he’s never too far
from a reminder about one particular moment in his past –
specifically, that evening in 2005 when he became a Liverpool legendRAFA
BEn ITEZ