‘We didn’t want Benitez to walk away from Reds’
INSIGHT INTO RAFA’S FINAL ANFIELD MONTHS
FORMER Liverpool chairman Sir Martin Broughton claims the Reds “never wanted” Rafa Benitez to leave Anfield during the summer of 2010.
The current Newcastle United manager departed the Reds at the end of the 2009/10 campaign after a six-year stint on Merseyside in which he lifted the Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FA Cup.
Benitez was loved in the North West but his relationship with the club’s then-owners – Tom Hicks and George Gillett – had deteriorated to the point of no return.
In April 2010, Sir Martin Broughton was appointed as Liverpool chairman and was tasked with overseeing the sale of the club. And he offers a fascinating insight into Benitez’s final months at Anfield during an interview with the Liverpool Echo.
“I never wanted Rafa to go,” Sir Martin explained.
“The one thing I did not want to do was to sack Rafa. And the reason for that was nothing to do with my relationship with Rafa.
“The reason was that I felt the right people to decide who the new manager should be, or that it should be Rafa, were the new owners.
“The wrong person to decide that was me, who had been brought in to find a new owner on a temporary basis. “So I was very clear in my position that Rafa stays.” During his first two weeks at the club, Sir Martin claims he tried to arrange to meet Benitez face to face on at least two occasions, but the Spaniard postponed both. Essentially, he suggests that Benitez then went on to play games via the media. “To me, this is getting weird,” Sir Martin added. “This was the second opportunity to meet, just for a chat. “But on the Saturday, in his prematch chat with the TV, Rafa says: ‘I don’t understand what is going on here, the new chairman has been here nearly two weeks and I’ve not even met him yet!’ “I thought: ‘Hmm, I see the tone of things now!’ “But I still didn’t want him to go. I’m used to people playing silly games at times, so I thought let’s keep it straight.” Eventually the pair did meet to discuss Benitez’s future at Anfield. However, a oneway conversation unfolded – until Sir Martin questioned why Benitez needed to sign a seventh left-back in as many years.
Sir Martin continued: “We had an interesting thing where I did then meet him, and I had a two-hour download from Rafa, without being able to get a word in, where he told me what was wrong.
“That was fine, get it off your chest, it’s not a complaint at all.
“I like to hear his version. I then had another meeting with him maybe a week later, and got the same two-hour download.
“I kept interrupting, ‘Rafa, you told me that...,’ and he said ‘you just need to hear this...,’ before we could have a conversation.
“Essentially, I was saying to him: ‘What do you need?’
“In my background, if you want investment you say what is wrong, what have you tried to do about it that hasn’t worked, what do you need and how is it going to work.
“He had come with a shopping list which included, for example, a leftback.
“And I said: ‘Rafa, you’ve been here six years, and you’ve bought six left-backs and you’re telling me none of them have worked. So what are you going to differently this time?’
“There was no answer. “I asked him to write down everything he wanted and why it was going to work. And he did.
“He thought it was totally incomprehensible from a football viewpoint but he did it!
“And I was beginning to think we were starting to get on the right wavelength, when it became obvious that he wanted to have discussions through his lawyer – and that’s when it became obvious that he wanted out.”
Despite all of this, Sir Martin insists he did want Benitez to remain at Anfield during the process of selling the club.
However, Benitez’s lawyer is alleged to have made it clear that the Spaniard was only now interested in leaving.
“My idea was still that he would stay,” Sir Martin said.
“Rafa basically pulled out of the whole thing and said: ‘I’m going to leave this to my lawyers to negotiate.’
“He didn’t say he was leaving, and I never told him he was leaving.
“It was ‘I’ll leave this to my lawyer,’ and his lawyer’s stance was, ‘what are the terms for Rafa going’?” ■■The full 90-minute interview is available to listen to on the paid-for Liverpool Echo website’s Anfield Extra section.
I asked him to write down everything he wanted and why it was going to work. And he did. Sir Martin Broughton