It’s raining in Galicia, with drops running down the windows at Celta Vigo’s recently opened Cidade Deportiva Afouteza training ground.
Bounding into the media room comes Rafa Benitez, still wearing his ‘RB’ personalised shorts and jersey, having just taken training with Celta — his 14th job in almost three decades managing at the top level.
Over that time, Benitez has won 13 trophies with six clubs in three countries, with highlights including two La Liga titles and the 2003-04 UEFA Cup with Valencia, the 2004-05 Champions League with Liverpool and the 2012-13 Europa League with Chelsea.
The 63-year-old took on a new challenge last summer, joining Celta on a three-year contract, and the team from Spain’s far north-west are currently 17th in the 20-team La Liga table, with wobbling champions Barcelona coming to town this weekend.
Benitez warmly welcomes The Athletic to his new workplace for an interview that often returned to one major theme — the importance of timing and opportunity in the career of a coach or manager.
This is an edited transcript of the conversation.
The Athletic: Vigo seems quite like Liverpool — the rain, the river, the port…
Benitez: When I speak with my wife, who is there in Liverpool, I tell her, ‘It’s raining’. And she says, ‘Of course! You’re in Vigo!’. It’s similar in that sense, the rain, the climate. The difference is that here in Vigo, in Spain, you eat really well.”
The Athletic: The sporting situation at Celta seems more similar to when you took over at Everton or Newcastle…
Benitez: There are some similarities. At Newcastle, we came in very late (in March 2016, aiming — unsuccessfully — to avoid relegation), then we did very well coming straight back up and finishing 10th without a big budget. This is more like Everton. Everyone thought we had to be at a certain level, but the required effort was not made, they spent just €1.7million (£1.5m/$1.8m at current exchange rates). Here, the starting point is lower, we have to go along, improving step by step.
The Athletic: Since you arrived, Celta have a new president (Marian Mourino replaced her 80-year-old father, Carlos) and sporting director (Luis Campos replaced by Marco Garces). Big players, Gabriel Veiga and Javi Galan, were sold last summer, too. Is the challenge greater than you expected on taking over?
Benitez: I arrived for a three-year project. With our experience in England, Italy and Spain, at different levels, normally we have not had big budgets. Not even at Liverpool, as it had nothing to do with the current Liverpool. But we grew, based on hard work, a good methodology, and staff who helped you to be right more times than wrong. It’s a difficult beginning — many changes at the same time – but this club has 100 years of history. Fans who support the team a lot in difficult situations. Once the difficulties of this year are overcome, the team will grow and improve.
Benitez and Xabi Alonso at Liverpool training in 2007 (Nick Potts – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)
The Athletic: Speaking of managing Liverpool, your opportunity there came after winning two La Liga titles, (finishing) ahead of Real Madrid and Barcelona. Your former Liverpool player Xabi Alonso is in a similar situation now at Bayer Leverkusen, currently leading Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. How does an emerging coach decide when to take that jump to a bigger club?
Benitez: It’s difficult to know. You have to know the possibility of improving where you are or growing with a new project. I didn’t want to leave Valencia, I was really happy there, but there were offers from four teams and Liverpool’s was very attractive. You could see a project,with lots of excitement and potential. Maybe if I stayed, we would have won the Champions League with Valencia, but I went to a club that trusted me and gave me the keys to their house.
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The Athletic: Have you seen many of Alonso’s games as Leverkusen coach, such as the 3-0 Bundesliga win over Bayern Munich last weekend?
Benitez: Yesterday, I watched the highlights. I’ve watched some full games, too. When he took over last season, they needed to play a lot on the counter-attack. Now they have a team which is more of a protagonist, with a lot of pace, a lot of fast attacking. He is doing very good work. Xabi has been at good teams with good coaches. He is intelligent. He has picked up different things from all his coaches.
The Athletic: Xabi began coaching in Real Madrid’s youth system, as you did, then spent three years in charge of Real Sociedad’s B team, and now his first (senior-team) job is in Germany. He’s shown patience and gained experience in different places, going step by step…
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Benitez: Experience — in my case, too — is what you do with what you have been through. When you go through various leagues, various countries, at different teams, at different levels, you pick up a lot of experience and information. That allows you to make the right decisions more often. We coaches make mistakes, as all people do, but experience means you get it right more often.
The Athletic: Another former Liverpool midfielder, Steven Gerrard, started his managerial career at Rangers (in Scotland), then moved to Aston Villa (of the Premier League). Gerrard is now in Saudi Arabia (managing Al Ettifaq), while Alonso is a big candidate for the Liverpool job. Do you think he (Gerrard) should have taken more time to learn the trade?
Benitez: Often, the path you take depends on the options you have. Stevie did very well at Rangers. Maybe Aston Villa was the right step but in the wrong moment. Maybe it is a setback, but from there, he had the option to go to Saudi Arabia and he took it. If he waited, would it have been different? The timing for these decisions, whether you hurry or not, depends on many factors we coaches do not control.
Benitez took over at Celta for the start of this season (Octavio Passos/Getty Images)
The Athletic: After winning two La Ligas and a UEFA Cup with Valencia, you were the fashionable young manager of the time. Roberto De Zerbi is doing really well at Brighton and is talked about a lot in England at the moment. As you say, timing can be a big factor in a coach’s career…
Benitez: For sure and even more now with social media, everything goes much quicker. I’m now a better coach than I was in the past. There is a lot of noise around Xabi Alonso at the moment, but there are lots of other good coaches not so much in the media spotlight. Teams have to choose not what is trending on social media, but the characteristics they need and the stability and path they want for their team.
The Athletic: Alonso and De Zerbi have been praised for new, modern tactical approaches, doing different things not seen before. Does football really change that much?
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Benitez: Today’s football is still pretty similar to before. On social media, or in the media, you can sell the idea of attacking football. That is great, but the teams who win things are still those with balance. Teams winning games 4-3 rarely have consistency and win titles. Those winning lots of games 1-0 have to defend really, really well to win things. Attacking well and defending well always gives you the best chance. Manchester City score lots of goals, but they also concede very few. Whether it is Leicester City, Barcelona or Real Madrid, the teams who win trophies have that balance. That will never change.
The Athletic: A lot of Spanish coaches are doing well in the Premier League at the moment: Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, Mikel Arteta at Arsenal, Unai Emery at Villa, Andoni Iraola at Bournemouth. Is it where everyone wants to be to test themselves?
Benitez: We all want to be in the most important competitions with the most attention. The Premier League is the reference at the moment. They pay well, conditions are good, fans are passionate, games are attractive. So it would be attractive for Xabi Alonso, and any other coach, to prove himself and to feel satisfied.
The Athletic: Newcastle now are completely different from your time there with Mike Ashley. Are you at all jealous of (current head coach) Eddie Howe with all the resources he has from the Saudi owners?
Benitez: We worked hard and tried to do the best for the club in a very limited situation. The fans appreciated that. When I left, the new owners were arriving. It was taking a long time and you have to make decisions. I wish all the best for Newcastle and Eddie Howe. We had a very good relationship and I still watch their games and there are still players there that we had. They are now in an ideal situation to keep growing and improving, but it is timing again — sometimes it is right, sometimes it isn’t.
Benitez was a hugely popular figure among Newcastle fans (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
The Athletic: At Newcastle, it seemed you took the fans’ side against Ashley; also at Liverpool, when you seemed to confront unpopular co-owners in Tom Hicks and George Gillett…
Benitez: The fans see you are the one showing your face in press conferences to get the best for the team. They see you as their standard bearer, but you are not looking for conflict or confrontation. I had a good relationship with Mike Ashley. Everyone has their own interests. A coach wants investment to improve the team, as the fans do, but the professional and the personal are two different things. Like at Liverpool. I never fought with the owners — what I want is for the team to be improved.
The Athletic: Is there anything in your career that you would change or do differently?
Benitez: For sure. I left Liverpool because there was a difficult situation with Hicks and Gillett. Maybe I could have stayed and tried to work things out, but at that moment I had to make a decision. And then you go to a team like Inter (Milan) who spent not one euro after winning the treble, but with a very veteran team. That conditions what you do later.
But in general, when you make decisions, you’re excited about what you are doing, really convinced it will go well. Often in football, what people tell you and what they do later are not related at all. And once it has started, you can’t get out, you have to try to make the best of the situation.
The Athletic: Celta have only won two games out of 12 at home in La Liga this season and there have been whistles during recent defeats. Given Barcelona are not in great form, is Saturday’s game an opportunity for everyone at Celta, players and fans, to enjoy a happier time?
Benitez: You have to remember where we are coming from. This team avoided relegation on the final day last season. (By beating Barca at home, oddly enough.) It is more difficult to support a team which does not win so many games. I have been at Real Madrid and it is easier to support the team when you win 80 per cent of your games. When you do not win so often, keeping that loyalty is more difficult, but generally, our fans are very good, they support us.
The Athletic: When Celta visit Madrid next month, it’ll be your first time back at the Santiago Bernabeu since you were head coach there for six months in the 2015-16 season. What kind of welcome do you expect?
Benitez: I was practically 20 years at Real Madrid, from the bottom (playing for the reserve teams, then coaching in the academy) to the top. So I still have many friends there and relationships with many people. Now, on a professional level, you have other priorities. The more emotional fans will let themselves get influenced. Objective fans will see a professional who does his work the best he can and they will value that.
The Athletic: Do you respect how current Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti (and his Everton predecessor) successfully maintains relationships both up and down — with the boardroom and the dressing room?
Benitez: Of course, Carlo is doing very well. At every team, it’s very important to win games. That helps you to manage everything surrounding the team more easily. He is a coach who gets performances out of good players and that is why, in the end, he has that harmony.
Benitez’s Celta side welcome Barcelona in La Liga this weekend (Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)
The Athletic: You’re 63 years old now, with this project underway at Celta, what ambitions or challenges do you have left?
Benitez: First, to do a good job here so Celta can grow and gain stability, not to suffer every year. With structure and organisation, you can achieve a comfortable position in the table, then start to approach the European places. That would be the objective. Then, for the future, maybe international management, a chance to be at a World Cup or European Championship.
The Athletic: There is Spain obviously, but also England, where your family still live. Would that be interesting?
Benitez: That is always a dangerous question as there is a manager who is doing the job well. I even have friends on (Gareth) Southgate’s staff. We have a very good relationship. But, thinking about the future, I’d like to have a national team capable of competing for trophies. I suffer a lot with defeats. When you are in a team which does not lose so often, you get used to competing to win things. So I would like to have a national team capable of achieving things — but again, (that is) all in the future.
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(Top photo: Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
