RAFA MY OBSESSION WITH COACHING PERFECTION (FROM THE AGE OF 13!)

RAFA BENITEZ has revealed his obsession with coaching started when he was just 13 years old.

His junior side had just won the Madrid championship, and he compiled notes on his team-mates and academy training sessions.

“I was giving points and marks to our players after every game, writing down the top scorers. I still have everything stacked in my office,” Benitez says.

“When I was 16, I was coach in the summer, and a player. When I was at university – at 17, 18 – I was player, coach, manager, and was playing for Real Madrid.”

Notebooks turned to databases. “I used MS-DOS, then learned Basic, to hold the info.” He had a Commodore 64.

“I have all the training sessions of my players. For instance, my coaches here at Newcastle, Antonio Gomez Perez and Mikel Antia... I saw them play at 16 and now they are 45 and with me. I have them on my computers!”

More than 40 years on, Benitez is still obsessed, consumed by football, and teaching his

Newcastle players that “little details matter”, on a training camp in Spain.

“You’re trying for perfection. You know that it’s impossible, but you try,” he says. “You have to get as much as you can right.”

Benitez has just completed his second year in charge at St James’ Park.

Plenty has gone right. A promotion, and a solid 13th so far in a bid to stay in the top flight. The loyal backing of Geordie fans, which has kept the club united during a difficult first season back in the elite.

Plenty still frustrates. Transfer windows especially, when money is tight, decision-making glacial-slow.

So why is Benitez still at Newcastle? What can this multiple-trophy winner, and European master, achieve on Tyneside?

He explains: “What my teams usually do is compete, with the chance to win. When I say winning, I don’t mean just games, I mean winning trophies.

“Can we do that? We would need some time, but you never know in the cups.

“I can see the potential for this club to be in the top 10 and even higher. Higher, could be in the topeight, but not just for one year then finishing 15th for three years in a row. No. You have to be in the top 10, then the top eight, then top seven, six. To do that you need a structure. You have to have the basement ready and then you have to build on that.”

Whether owner Mike Ashley is prepared to help Benitez, 57, do that remains to be seen, but he wants freedom to keep making changes. He is Toon’s best, probably only, chance of stability.

The Spaniard added: “I feel this support and I feel this responsibility that I have to do well, every single decision I try to analyse carefully.

“We have to keep the team in the Premier League and build again. When I see a lot of fans behind me supporting me, I am really proud of that, and feel the responsibility. I am happy with that.

“You try to change 20 per cent, 30 per cent, hopefully next year will be another 20 per cent, another 50 per cent.”

“I came here with the idea to compete and to create a strong team and a strong club, to compete every year. If we stay up, the idea is to improve.

“The way Newcastle United were doing things doesn’t mean they were right, because they were going down. We cannot make the same mistakes.

“We have been working for these two years and we know each other much better. We have more options to send the right message across and to do things better. I think we will have more chances to attract better players. At some clubs you know that the fans do not care or that they are against you, it’s not the same passion, the same feeling.

“Here, I know that a lot of fans trust me and they have confidence that we can do well. To compete and be capable of winning something, you need to be stronger, you have to have the plan. The process, everything, has to be clearer.

“I am pleased with this job. I enjoy it when I watched our second goal against Southampton, and you see the players doing the thing you’ve talked about.

“The club has to keep learning.”

‘At 13 I gave marks to all our players and wrote down who were the top scorers I still have everything stacked in my office’