Benitez 'refused to talk to Torres, Gerrard, Johnson and Aquilani'
Tony Barrett
At various times in recent weeks Rafael Benitez has refused to talk to Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson and Alberto Aquilani.
The reason for the Liverpool manager’s coldness towards four of his biggest names? They have all been injured and unable to play for his team at a time when Benitez needed them badly.
The quartet have been made to feel like lepers at Melwood. Shunned by the very person who is supposed to inspire them, at one stage they became so isolated that they were afraid to have normal, everyday conversations with their team mates for fear of being caught doing so by Benitez.
The situation became so bad that Johnson invented a nickname for the group to illustrate their outcast status. The so-called “bastard club†was formed and the only requirement for entry was an injury that made playing for Liverpool temporary impossible.
How could a manager be so cruel to his players? How could he be so cold that he would ignore them at a time when their health and wellbeing should have been uppermost in his thoughts? Well, in actual fact, Benitez wasn’t. The above is a work of fiction but change the names involved to Bill Shankly, Ian St John, Ron Yeats, Chris Lawler and Gerry Byrne and the story is made true.
At a time when Benitez’s warmth towards his players, or, more accurately, his alleged lack of it, is being questioned regularly it is perhaps wise to remember that even the greatest and most charismatic of managers – a category which Shankly undoubtedly falls into – could at times be as cold as the away end at Boundary Park on a winter’s day.
It is also worth considering the likelihood that Fernando Torres’s tale about Benitez chastising him for failing to make a near post run when everyone else wanted to celebrate the Spanish forward becoming a father for the first time may actually have been allegorical. Torres never tires of telling anyone willing to listen that Benitez deserves all the credit for turning him into one of the world’s most feared strikers and he also continually talks of his manager’s unstinting passion for the job and it is against this type of background that such “revelations†should be assessed.
All managers have their idiosyncrasies and they will all have flaws in their character, some more than others. It is results that matter, though, not how regularly they do or don’t smile at a 19-year-old in the reserve team or whether or not they play golf with their senior players.
Man management plays an essential part in the pursuit of glory, of course, and only a fool would suggest otherwise but when you have propelled a squad containing the likes of Igor Biscan, Antonio Nunez, Josemi, Scott Carson, Djibril Cisse, Milan Baros and Harry Kewell to Champions League glory, as Benitez did in 2005, then surely you can’t be that bad at motivating players.
Benitez may not be a Shankly when it comes to providing inspiration, no-one is, but then nor was Shankly a Benitez when it came to tactical improvisation – few are. There is no set path to success, there are so many different ways of getting there and no one style is the right one. Each manager must find their own route and Benitez will ultimately be judged on trophies – of which he is yet to win enough – rather than how well he gets on with his players.
It is fair to say though, that had Benitez been responsible for the formation of a modern day “bastard club†at Melwood then some would have rushed to judgement already.
Gillett and Hicks fail to earn their Spurs
For Tom Hicks and George Gillett, the timing could not have been worse. Just as they were enjoying an all too rare visit to Merseyside to see the team they co-own in action, Tottenham Hotspur were preparing to reveal plans to move to a new stadium.
Having “postponed†their own plans for a new stadium for Liverpool “until the credit markets open up againâ€, the under pressure Hicks and Gillett needed this like a hole in the head.
Spurs, who have never milked the cash cow that is the Champions League, believe they can build a new ground by 2012 but Hicks and Gillett say it is impossible for Liverpool, who have generated more than £100 million from the Champions League under the reign of Rafa Benitez, to do likewise. Maybe Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is using different credit markets.
It is believed the proposed Spurs development in North London will cost in the region of £400 million, a figure which is remarkably similar to the estimated price of the HKS designed plan for Liverpool’s long promised but still to be delivered new stadium in Stanley Park.
So the question is – are Spurs now more financially viable than Liverpool or do Hicks and Gillett not have enough pull with the banks who like to say yes?
Either way, it is becoming abundantly clear that the longer Hicks and Gillett remain at the helm of one of the world’s greatest clubs, the more likely it is that that club will continue its slide towards mediocrity.
Tony Barrett
At various times in recent weeks Rafael Benitez has refused to talk to Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson and Alberto Aquilani.
The reason for the Liverpool manager’s coldness towards four of his biggest names? They have all been injured and unable to play for his team at a time when Benitez needed them badly.
The quartet have been made to feel like lepers at Melwood. Shunned by the very person who is supposed to inspire them, at one stage they became so isolated that they were afraid to have normal, everyday conversations with their team mates for fear of being caught doing so by Benitez.
The situation became so bad that Johnson invented a nickname for the group to illustrate their outcast status. The so-called “bastard club†was formed and the only requirement for entry was an injury that made playing for Liverpool temporary impossible.
How could a manager be so cruel to his players? How could he be so cold that he would ignore them at a time when their health and wellbeing should have been uppermost in his thoughts? Well, in actual fact, Benitez wasn’t. The above is a work of fiction but change the names involved to Bill Shankly, Ian St John, Ron Yeats, Chris Lawler and Gerry Byrne and the story is made true.
At a time when Benitez’s warmth towards his players, or, more accurately, his alleged lack of it, is being questioned regularly it is perhaps wise to remember that even the greatest and most charismatic of managers – a category which Shankly undoubtedly falls into – could at times be as cold as the away end at Boundary Park on a winter’s day.
It is also worth considering the likelihood that Fernando Torres’s tale about Benitez chastising him for failing to make a near post run when everyone else wanted to celebrate the Spanish forward becoming a father for the first time may actually have been allegorical. Torres never tires of telling anyone willing to listen that Benitez deserves all the credit for turning him into one of the world’s most feared strikers and he also continually talks of his manager’s unstinting passion for the job and it is against this type of background that such “revelations†should be assessed.
All managers have their idiosyncrasies and they will all have flaws in their character, some more than others. It is results that matter, though, not how regularly they do or don’t smile at a 19-year-old in the reserve team or whether or not they play golf with their senior players.
Man management plays an essential part in the pursuit of glory, of course, and only a fool would suggest otherwise but when you have propelled a squad containing the likes of Igor Biscan, Antonio Nunez, Josemi, Scott Carson, Djibril Cisse, Milan Baros and Harry Kewell to Champions League glory, as Benitez did in 2005, then surely you can’t be that bad at motivating players.
Benitez may not be a Shankly when it comes to providing inspiration, no-one is, but then nor was Shankly a Benitez when it came to tactical improvisation – few are. There is no set path to success, there are so many different ways of getting there and no one style is the right one. Each manager must find their own route and Benitez will ultimately be judged on trophies – of which he is yet to win enough – rather than how well he gets on with his players.
It is fair to say though, that had Benitez been responsible for the formation of a modern day “bastard club†at Melwood then some would have rushed to judgement already.
Gillett and Hicks fail to earn their Spurs
For Tom Hicks and George Gillett, the timing could not have been worse. Just as they were enjoying an all too rare visit to Merseyside to see the team they co-own in action, Tottenham Hotspur were preparing to reveal plans to move to a new stadium.
Having “postponed†their own plans for a new stadium for Liverpool “until the credit markets open up againâ€, the under pressure Hicks and Gillett needed this like a hole in the head.
Spurs, who have never milked the cash cow that is the Champions League, believe they can build a new ground by 2012 but Hicks and Gillett say it is impossible for Liverpool, who have generated more than £100 million from the Champions League under the reign of Rafa Benitez, to do likewise. Maybe Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is using different credit markets.
It is believed the proposed Spurs development in North London will cost in the region of £400 million, a figure which is remarkably similar to the estimated price of the HKS designed plan for Liverpool’s long promised but still to be delivered new stadium in Stanley Park.
So the question is – are Spurs now more financially viable than Liverpool or do Hicks and Gillett not have enough pull with the banks who like to say yes?
Either way, it is becoming abundantly clear that the longer Hicks and Gillett remain at the helm of one of the world’s greatest clubs, the more likely it is that that club will continue its slide towards mediocrity.
