Spanish newspaper Sport celebrate Rafael Benitez on Friday. Whilst the Newcastle United manager may have arrived at St James’ Park from Real Madrid, Sport’s great rivals, the Catalan favouring newspaper still have a great deal of respect for Benitez.
Celebrating 1000 matches this week, goals from Mo Diame and Christian Atsu fired Newcastle United to a 2-0 victory over Wigan Athletic.
Benitez has now been in charge of 35 Newcastle games, point out Sport, already ten more than his time with both Inter Milan and Real Madrid.
Sport believe Benitez hasn’t always got the praise he deserves, and they point out that over his 1000 games at 12 clubs, he’s won twelve titles. His way of working is compared to Sir Alex Ferguson, but there’s a suggestion Benitez hasn’t enjoyed a similar amount of leeway.
The Spanish newspaper see no reason why Benitez’s record shouldn’t be enhanced at Newcastle United, and they say the manager will do anything to make sure the club win the Championship and gain promotion.
It’s an ‘obsessed’ approach which Sport say Benitez has had at all his clubs, but is working especially well at Newcastle because the club aren’t too scared to give him wide ranging power.
There’s no suggestion of Benitez returning to Spain or even being tempted by other options. Having rebuilt his reputation at Newcastle, there’s likely to be interest in Benitez, but he’s simply too focused on the task at hand to even think about that.
