Former Everton boss has recounted his disastrous six months at Everton. He recalled how his former affiliation with Liverpool prevented him from effecting any changes.
Benitez, spent six years in Liverpool and only six months in Everton before he was sacked, after nine defeats in 13 games. Everton fans displayed a banner requesting that Benitez be sacked after Everton’s loss to Norwich City, and also to Liverpool their Rival under his management.
Speaking on this, Benitez said that, at the time he got the offer, he accepted it knowing he’ll try his best to see that things worked for the club, but he also knows that it won’t be easy considering that Everton and Liverpool are bitter rivals. He realized that it was impossible to make changes since he once coached the Reds.
He also added that if it were to be in another club, he wouldn’t be scared to implement changes, for the club to improve but he couldn’t try it in Everton.
He recalled to Sky Sports: “At the time Everton came in with the offer, I knew I would give my best and do everything to try to improve things.”
“I knew it could be difficult because I was at Liverpool, so maybe I couldn’t make some decisions. It was very clear for us at the beginning.”
“I had a meeting with a head of one of the departments and I asked him, ‘do you think everything is fine?’ He said, ‘yeah, everything is perfect. I thought ‘£600m had been spent, it cannot be perfect when the owners aren’t happy and the fans are not happy.’
“So I realized we had to change things inside, but I couldn’t do it straight away because I was a former Red and it could be seen as,. ‘oh, he’s come in to change our club’.
“In another club, I would have made those decisions. I did it in the past, because you know very clearly that is the way to improve, but there at Everton I couldn’t do it.”
Rafa Benitez is a Spanish Professional football manager, who recently managed Everton but got dismissed due to several losses of the team in football matches