Now ‘King of Newcastle’ according to the Spanish media, the perception of Rafa Benitez in his home country over the past 15 months or so has changed a lot.
Praised for what he is currently doing at the Championship club, the former Liverpool manager was rather disliked by everyone for his work at Real Madrid.
Sacked after six months in charge, the 56-year-old’s time in charge of his childhood club couldn’t have gone much worse, yet some people are still grateful for the work he did during his time there.
One of those happens to be young centre-midfielder Marcos Llorente, currently on loan at Alaves, who was handed his debut by Benitez, coming off the bench in a 3-0 win over Levante.
Speaking to AS about his time away from Real Madrid, the subject of his debut came up, and the youngster had only nice things to say about his former manager.
He said: “I can only say thank you. He brought me to train every day with the first team, taught me a lot about tactics and allowed me to realise my great dream: start with Madrid in the Bernabeu.”
His only actual start for Madrid came in the Copa del Rey in December of last year in a 3-1 win over Cadiz CF.
Since moving on loan to Alaves, Llorente has started all but one game for the small Spanish club, picking up on assist along the way.
