Has Rafa built anything before Newcastle United?
By Bryan Nelson
Good question brain of mine. After looking over Rafa Benitez’s resume, Newcastle United looks to be his biggest challenge yet.
The only time any club came close to being a serious challenge for Rafa Benitez is when he took over at Valencia, and had a squad of very young players that he needed to accommodate with some older and more experienced players.
Thing is, it wasn’t all that bad. I don’t know if you guys closely follow the history of La Liga, but Valencia had already made back to back appearances in the Champions League final before Benitez arrived. The squad had plenty of potential and room to grow. All he needed to do was feed that growth with tactical innovation and an eye for talent.
Valencia won the La Liga title in Benitez’s first season. A feat not accomplished by many, and it was something his predecessor, Héctor Cúper, failed to do. But the club was hardly of his own specific design.
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At Liverpool, Benitez managed to come in and convince Steven Gerrard not to depart to Chelsea. Shame he couldn’t do the same for Andros Townsend. He failed to convince Michael Owen to remain with the club and saw him depart for Real Madrid. Funny how we’re all connected.
It took a few years for Rafa to turn Liverpool into his design. Throughout his first season, he managed great success with a squad built to succeed. Here at Newcastle United, success will not immediately find its way into Rafa’s hands. No, he’ll have to change everything from top to bottom.
He has already begun that change with an academy shakeup, numerous transfer deals bringing in strikers, defenders, wingers, and even a goalkeeper. He is currently outspending the rest of the Championship, showing that he has been given the funds to succeed. Something his predecessors sadly can’t say happened to them.
Benitez’s work at Newcastle has been dubbed, “The Rafa Project” and players who have joined have been cited as falling for the “Benitez Effect”. These things and more have made this the most exciting thing Rafa has done in his career. Valencia and Liverpool probably can’t even touch the amount of impact Benitez has already had.
When managers join clubs, they often times make subtle changes, and a big move maybe once or twice in a window. As they build up fan trust and success, they push harder. It often leads to the downfall of managers who can’t create success immediately due to going with the flow.
Benitez is telling the flow to get out of the way. It is an unprecedented amount of change that he has brought already, making it one of the biggest shake-ups in English football history. It is most certainly the biggest Newcastle United shake-up.
You don’t often see managers coming in and owning their club. But those that do are the ones with the confidence and readiness to succeed. The reason why Newcastle United get promoted to the Premier League next season is because Rafa built that squad. He didn’t build on it.
Rafa could quickly become the next best thing to Sir Bobby Robson, who built a squad of his own design to tailor to his own coaching values. It is why the great Sir Bobby was able to make Newcastle United one of the top contenders in the late 90s and early 2000s.
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The tight leash put on Robson led to his demise as manager and the swift downfall of a European football giant. Only now are we seeing an awakening. We’ve never really gotten to see Rafa as a builder, but I like what I’m seeing.