The Spaniard has warmed the hearts of the Tyneside locals and, by the sounds of it, the players too.
Newcastle United are seeing a different side to Rafael Benitez. A manager frequently described as cold, calculated and unable or unwilling to bond with his players, the Spaniard now appears a figure of warmth and adoration, not just for the club but the fans and the squad too.
Bonafide European stars a la Steve Gerrard and Marek Hamsik both lamented their non-existent relationship with Benitez during spells at Liverpool and Napoli while the Daily Mirror reported that Real Madrid goal-bludgeon Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t take too kindly to the 56-year-old emailing him a compilation of videos to show him how to throw off a marker. He knew it all already apparently.
Yet, Rob Elliot paints a rather more positive picture of the divisive coach, claiming that Benitez took the time to contact the goalkeeper personally while he was recovering from a cruciate ligament injury to confirm that he still had a Newcastle future.
“Rafa sent me a message over the summer,” the Republic of Ireland international told the Irish Times. “I got a text: ‘Hi Rob, hope injury is well.’
“He asked me which players I ‘like for the Championship’. I was half drugged-up, I thought I might put ‘Keegan’.
“I thought: ‘Wow, he’s staying and he’s asking my opinion’. It gave me such a massive lift.”
It’s the little details that make a difference in management and, during his time on Tyneside, Benitez has dispelled any notion of a cold personality, instead resembling a man genuinely in love with the city and the club.
And the importance of this cannot be underestimated, especially as the Spaniard’s arrival coincided with Newcastle’s lowest ebb in many a year.
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