MY DAUGHTERS HELP TO KEEP ME YOUNG

HIS two daughters help Rafa Benitez understand the young players he is managing.

Claudia is 20 and studying at university in the Midlands, and Agata, 17, is “a little Scouser”.

Benitez, 56, says: “I always say have young people around. If not, you just get older, and it’s harder to communicate with the players.

“The way you talk with your daughter, and you know how she’s thinking, it is very useful. Players are like teenagers, many of them. You have to think: ‘What would I say to my daughters in this situation? How would I communicate?’ It really works with some players.”

But he admits not everything is plain sailing with his daughters. “Our fights – it’s normally about TV. One of them is watching Geordie Shore. ‘What are you doing?’ I say. They love all that, Big Brother, Love Island, all that rubbish. I can’t win!”

His family remain close despite his work schedule. “Do the girls worry about me? They like football, they follow all my games. They only worry about me when we are losing games. ‘Dad, be careful’, but they know that I can cope with the pressure.

“I had the kidney problem (last season) and was at home, on the sofa.. ‘Get me this, get me that’. But they have confidence that I can cope with all the things in my job.”

A text bleeps in as he talks and it is from Claudia. He says: “This is about Instagram. She is saying: ‘Listen, you don’t have a clue. Put this and you’ll get more followers’.

“For me, I don’t need more followers, but for her it seems important. We talk about Ant and

Dec and she says: ‘Oh, they’re big Newcastle fans and they talk well about you, so follow them’.

“I have a Twitter account, @rafabenitezweb. I don’t run it myself. Following Alan Shearer was easy! She told me: ‘James Bay is a singer and a massive Newcastle fan and he says nice things about you, so follow him’. So I did.“