Rafa says England job’s one for Sean
BACKING: Rafa Benitez RAFA BENITEZ reckons Sean Dyche is capable of managing a big club – but landing the England job would be easier.
Burnley boss Dyche, 46, is heavily backed to take charge of Everton after Ronald Koeman’s sacking.
But Newcastle counterpart Benitez, 57, insists a Premier League position – like the one at Goodison Park – is a tougher aim for Englishmen than Gareth Southgate’s role as Three Lions boss.
Benitez, who faces Dyche for the first time when Toon visit Turf Moor tomorrow, said: “Being England boss is a difficult job – but you have a better chance of getting it if you are English.
“The top six is different because you have foreign owners spending a lot of money and what they want is the best. That doesn’t mean it has to be an Englishman – it has to be the best.
“With England, you all want an English manager.You have four or five options and it’s easier than getting a job in the top six.
“It’s not for me to say Sean deserves a top-six job but he’s doing a great job where he is. It depends on the owners, if they say, ‘We want this kind of manager to play this kind of football or he has to do this kind of business’.
“Can he manage another team? I think so. I wouldn’t say he is the best young English manager, because you maybe have another in the Championship who is younger and doing a great job, but cannot compete because he’s not in the Premier League.
“But is Sean doing a good job? Yes. He has been at Burnley for five years and that means you can sign the players you want, play the way you want and it’s easier like that.
“The good thing about managers who have been with the same club for a long time is, if they are doing well, they can get better.
“Nowadays, when they change managers almost every three weeks, it’s virtually impossible to do what you want to do.
“So he’s been able to do a great job and that’s why he has been there a long time.’’ Burnley v Newcastle, Tomorrow,
8pm, Sky Sports Main Event Jan 2015: Newcastle 3 Burnley 3 Dec 2014: Burnley 1 Newcastle 1 Mar 1983: Burnley 1 Newcastle 0 Nov 1882: Newcastle 3 Burnley 0 Apr 1980: Newcastle 1 Burnley 1
Burnley – 41 wins Newcastle – 40 wins Draws – 19 NEW FACE: Puel is third in Foxes hotseat in 2017
CLAUDE PUEL has vowed to make Riyad Mahrez fall in love with Leicester again – by ‘seducing’ him with Foxy football.
After his shock midweek appointment at the King Power helm, Frenchman Puel is determined to have an immediate, positive impact on Leicester’s unsettled squad. And, in addition to getting off to a flier this afternoon with a home victory over managerless Everton, resolving the futures of players linked with big-money moves away from the Midlands is Puel’s top priority. Mahrez, in particular, has cut a frustrated figure in the past 16 months – ever since the club refused to sell him after their stunning Premier League title success in 2015-16.
The £50million-rated Algerian ace rattled in 17 league goals that season but managed only six in the last one. Puel, though, is convinced he can reignite the passion and fire inside Mahrez – and anyone else looking to leave in the January window.
The ex-Southampton coach, sacked after only a year, said: “It’s down to me to make these players want to stay by the fact we are playing good football. “I want them to be happy here with the type of football we play. I have got to attract them. I have to seduce them. “I must create that environment where these players want to stay and where they enjoy themselves. These are my plans.
“It’s normal sometimes for players, when they win the championship and play in the Champions League, to feel a sense of disappointment and frustration afterwards because they know they can work at a high level.
“But we will try, step by step, to improve and to find this level of ambition again – with good results.”
With boring, defensive football cited as the main reason for his Saints exit, Puel’s promise to please the King Power fans with a fancy, free-flowing philosophy may surprise those underwhelmed by his arrival.
Puel, 56, who led Southampton to eighth in the Premier League and a League Cup Final, added: “I’m proud of those achievements but as a trainer you’re never satisfied.
“It was frustrating not to continue at Southampton but they were selling the club and perhaps got a little nervous with that pressure.”
Despite being the Foxes’ third boss in 2017 – following Claudio Ranieri and Craig Shakespeare – Puel insists he is there for the long haul.
At least that is how he is approaching the role, while accepting a manager’s destiny is always in the hands of trigger-happy owners.
The ex-Monaco and Lyon coach said: “When I come to a job I always try to bring something not just on the technical side but to the club as a whole.
“My door is always open, to listen and also to tell them it’s a different opportunity.
“You make little tweaks as you go but it’s always a long-term project, not short-term. But you’re also aware and realistic that this can stop at any moment. These decisions happen at this level.”