Jack Hogan
Staff Writer
On Monday the 5th of March Trinity College was graced with the presence of one the most successful, most celebrated and at times most controversial managers that European football has seen in the last ten years. Rafael Benitez was awarded a Gold Medal of Honourary Patronage by the Philosophical Society for his outstanding contribution to sport. This honour is awarded to those who excel in any aspect of public life and Benitez follows in the footsteps of Al Pacino, Stephen Fry and Naomi Campbell to name but a few. Indeed, the achievements of Mr. Benitez cannot be understated. Earning promotion in the Spanish League with Extremadura, winning both La Liga twice and the UEFA Cup with Valencia and guiding Liverpool to a Champion’s League and FA Cup in successive seasons has ensured that ‘Rafa’ is no stranger to receiving gold medals. However, the Spaniard described this particular award as “a true honour” and was keen to thank the Phil and the wider Trinity community for the “wonderful welcome” he received.
Prior to the presentation of the medal, the 51 year-old gave an hour-long motivational speech entitled “Belief, Determination and Success” to a packed Edmund Burke theatre. Despite the four hundred person capacity of the venue, it still struggled to contain the confidence and personality of the speaker. Benitez arrived to a rapturous applause from a crowd of mainly Liverpool supporters. Indeed, his achievements with the club have earned him an unconditional heroic status with the Anfield faithful. His address in many ways reflected his managerial style – conservative at times, adventurous at others, but always harking back to his three core values – belief, determination and success.
He showed determination of his own in overcoming some technical difficulties at the start of his presentation, but began by outlining his early experiences as a manager in Spain and how he rose to the challenge of changing clubs, moving his family from city to city and adapting culturally, especially through language, to new stages of life. Determination, evolution as an individual and consistent belief in one’s ability are the foundations of achieving eventual success, he holds. A particularly interesting aspect of his discussion was a breakdown of the club hierarchy in England, where a manager is on an equal-pegging with the Chief Executive of the club in terms of responsibility, whereas in Europe (Italy and Spain especially), the manager sits further down the pecking order along with the chief scout. Indeed, the role of the manager being undermined by that of the club director is an increasingly serious issue in the Premier League today, as seen in the recent sacking of André Villas-Boas at Chelsea. Rafa was quick to point out that more often than not, managers are given the blame for the shortcomings of their team, with particular reference to the issue of zonal defensive marking rather than the traditional ‘man-to-man’ in which indiviual players are made culpable for conceding goals at set pieces. Rafa proceeded with some highly-entertaining, hands-on demonstrations of marking tactics with members of the audience, which endeared him further to his adoring listeners.
However, there was something of an arrogant undertone about the man. His constant reference to his successes (often consisting of simply showing a powerpoint slide of a picture of a trophy) typified the side of him that was misunderstood, often loathed, by other managers in the Premier League, most notably Sir Alex Ferguson and David Moyes. In addition, his sometimes cryptic footballing analogies in his address echoed his highly confusing, at times frustrating pre-match press conferences during his time at Liverpool, in which he would over-complicate to the point of teasing the journalists. Nonetheless, Rafa responds to his critics by maintaining that the facts speak for themselves – and they do. The turnover of Liverpool FC doubled under Rafa’s tenure, in 2009 Liverpool reached their highest ever position in the Premier League and how he guided a back line consisting of Steve Finnan and Djimi Traoré to a European Cup title is anyone’s guess. Other managers see him as over-confident, aloof and in a world of his own. However, Benitez holds that the difference between reaching first place and second place is so small that self-belief is often the crucial missing factor. While one cannot advocate over-confidence or arrogance, in the case of Benitez it is simply part of the man. It makes him the outstanding manager that he is.
However, after the address, at the press conference in the lavish confines of the GMB, we see a different Rafa. An amicable and humorous man who was willing to speak honestly and openly about his affinity with the city of Liverpool, his current unemployment and a possible future return to the Premier League. Unlike many foreign managers in England, Benitez truly fell in love with his host city. “It is where my kids grew up and I see it as a home.” Regardless of the effect that Rafa had on Liverpool, the city obviously effected him – how many managers will donate £96,000 to a local charity after they leave a club? How many managers will continue living in the city and regularly attend home games for pleasure? How many managers will dream to one day return to manage their former club? Indeed, a Premier League comeback is a keen ambition for Rafa. While he declined to comment on the possibility of taking the vacant position at Chelsea, he has since noted that “a manager that wants to win trophies has to keep an eye on the top sides. Chelsea are a top side.” But for Rafa, in order to compete at the highest level, a systematic plan must be in place. At Chelsea, he would be afforded little time to achieve success, no matter how much belief and determination he shows. It has recently come to light that Roman Abramovich has invested over £1 billion into his project at Chelsea. With, such vast sums of money being thrown around, does Rafa feel that there should be a limit to player’s transfer fees and wages? “No, I think this is just football. Football will always have money in it. I think you cannot put a limit on wages if you are a doctor or a lawyer. So you cannot put it on a footballer. That is the way it is.”
A return to the Premier League would be an outstanding step for Rafa, but how would he feel about plotting the downfall of his beloved Reds, should he return to Anfield on the away bench? “It would be interesting for sure. I think we are talking about one of the best clubs in England [Liverpool] and it will always be hard to beat them, no? You saw the other day they won the Carling Cup and I think they have a good quality squad.” Despite this recent victory, Liverpool have been unable to reach the heights of the “Rafalution” which lasted from 2004-09. However, the Carling Cup win could be the catalyst to lead the club back to those great European nights under Benitez. Indeed, the famous Champion’s League win of 2005 was a much discussed topic during both the post-speech question-and-answer session and the press conference. At 3-0 down at half time against a rampant AC Milan side in a cup final, what is a manager to say to his disheartended team? “In my notes when we went 3-0 down was written one sentence. Si marcamos estamos en el partido – if we score we will be in the game. We had to get our heads up and get positive. We made a few substitutions and we believe, that was the key.” It only to took one goal from Steven Gerrard to rally the troops, Liverpool eventually going on to win in an extraordinary penalty shootout.
This was undoubtedly Rafa’s finest hour. But what has he been doing more recently since his departure from Inter Milan? Much of the press conference consisted of Rafa displaying his new software for iPad called Global Coach which allows coaches to visually explain tactics and gameplans, through high definition graphics, without the language barrier. Benitez thought of the idea after he brought Lucas Leiva to Liverpool in 2007. The young Brazilian didn’t speak a word of English and had limited Spanish but constantly wanted to work on and improve his own game. For Rafa, “it is about evolution, and belief. Lucas Leiva had these [virtues] and he is now a great player in the first team at Liverpool.” Global Coach is certainly an impressive programme, but when asked if he planned to sell the concept to top clubs to improve their coaching, he noted that the software was still in the developmental stage.
Nonetheless, football will always consume Rafa’s life and being unemployed is not a long-term possibility for him. “I always want to be competing for the trophies at the top. For me, that is football.” The man exemplifies the three values to which he so frequently refers. With belief and determination, Benitez will no doubt return to the highest level of club football to achieve even further success. In what was a very different choice of guest for the Phil (indeed, president Eoin O’Liatháin noted a disproportionate number of “lads” in attendance during his introduction), Trinity welcomed one a football’s genuine greats – a man who lives and breathes the game. But as Rafa himself noted, the game “is not just football.” It truly is so much more.
