Sometimes a manager likes a player so much, he’ll continue to keep signing him wherever he ends up going.
It’s something that’s happened numerous times down the years, mainly if your names are Harry Redknapp and Niko Kranjcar.
This summer saw it happen again, not for Redknapp and Kranjcar of course, but for Rafa Benitez and Solomon Rondon.
Benitez signed the Venezuelan striker for Newcastle United last season in a move that proved to be very fruitful for both parties.
Rondon went on to score 12 goals in all competitions for the Magpies and helped keep them in the Premier League.
He was keen to return to St James Park this summer and Benitez would have looked to make it happen, but his departure from the club stopped it.
Instead, he headed for China and made Rondon his first signing at Dalian Yifang, and Rondon has admitted that the two share a special relationship after their year together at Newcastle.
”It is an employment relationship obviously between coach-player, but I can say with total confidence that it is not very common for a coach to take you to one team and the next year to take you to another; usually that does not happen,” he told BeinSports.
“Of course, we are talking about Rafa Benitez, a coach who has managed and won in all the places he has been. For me it’s something very special, for any player I think it would be.
“He knows what I am capable of in a year, I showed it to him, and maybe I could also shut up many mouths that said the Premier League was not for me, after what happened to West Brom with relegation; it was time to look for another way.
“I did not give up, I tried to do my best, and things went well, I stress again that it is what brings me here today.“
