Rafa Benitez has claimed he started the Spanish revolution in the Premier League, first introducing players at Liverpool and then Newcastle United.
Benitez has been speaking to AS today about his career and the Spanish players he worked with at both clubs, which he believes paved the way for those currently shining in the top flight.
The Premier League currently finds itself dominated by Spanish coaches, with Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola battling for the title this season, Unai Emery leading Aston Villa into the Champions League and Andoni Iraola impressing at Bournemouth.
Only 15 Spanish coaches have managed in the league since it’s inception, although a quarter of the managers in the league will be from the country when Julen Lopetegui joins the crew at West Ham next season.
Benitez was actually the first to manage in the league when he joined Liverpool in June 2004 and remained the only one until 2007, when Juande Ramos arrived at Tottenham.
He created something of a Spanish revolution at Liverpool at the time, bringing in several of his countrymen to the club, something he then repeated at Newcastle, and he believes he opened the doors on that front.
“There was a time when the Spanish player did not adapt to the Premier. In the 2004/05 season we opted for players like Xabi Alonso, Luis García, Fernando Torres and Reina, who paved the way for others,” he said.
It’s fair to say that Benitez enjoyed more success at Liverpool than Newcastle with his Spanish players, where the likes of Mikel Merino, Joselu and to some extent Ayoze Perez all struggled to really make an impact.
That had not been the case for him at Liverpool, where Xabi Alonso, Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina all developed into some of the best players in the league under him.
That cannot be said for Merino or Joselu, who both struggled immensely before returning to Spain and enjoying great success there instead. Joselu, for example, was a key player in Real Madrid winning the Champions League this season.
Benitez doesn’t believe he’s at fault on that front, though, and instead believes the failure with both players was due to matters outside of his control.
“The Premier League has a lot of rhythm and a lot of speed. Due to the conditions of our club, our team was the protagonist in the Championship, but in the Premier, we had to play more on the counterattack,” he insisted.
“The other forwards adapted better than Joselu to the Premier League game, he helped us a lot in the aerial game and especially in the games in which we had the initiative. With the ball close to the area, he always showed his quality in controls, passes and shots.
“Mikel was another type of bet, we convinced him to come (with a low exit clause), and from the beginning we knew that his time at Newcastle was going to be fleeting. The idea was that he would bring us quality and convince him to stay with us longer, but due to his quality and being Basque, he was a player that was impossible to retain.”
