Rafa Benitez has provided insight into his return to Newcastle never materialising which resulted in his appointment as Everton manager.
Benitez’s appointment at Goodison Park has divided opinion, to say the least.
Appointing a man best known for his success with Liverpool as Everton manager was always going to polarise opinion, but ultimately he’ll be judged on his results.
Rafa’s shrewd management earned him admirers at St. James’ Park, where he enjoyed a superb relationship with the fans, even amidst all the toxicity caused by their ownership.
The Spaniard has now revealed that he was, at one point in time, expecting to head back to Newcastle, but it never materialised, with Rafa becoming Everton boss on June 30th.
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Benitez is quoted by the Daily Mail saying:
“I went to China, I wanted to win. If I stay here, I want to win. I was following them [Newcastle United] when I was in China. I was in contact with a lot of people. I was expecting maybe something will happen. It didn’t happen. That is it.”
“I have to concentrate on now and with Everton I could see the vision, as a club they want to be successful. We were talking about the new stadium, so many things that means the club is going in the right direction.”
“My CV is there and I will try to help Everton with my experience. I want to win every game. Everton has a great chance to develop something, to challenge for the title, to challenge for Europe.”
“You start winning games and growing in confidence and you never know what can happen. As I have said many times, for me it is a challenge. We want to fight from the first day. We are really fighting, trying to improve every single detail in the training sessions.”
All due respect to Steve Bruce, you imagine there’ll be a fair few Newcastle supporters ruing the missed opportunity to secure Benitez’s return. He’s a superior manager with a far superior CV.
Now he’s been left to compete with Bruce and Newcastle with a club with greater resources. On a professional level, it’s probably worked out pretty well for Benitez personally.