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Rafa denies Purslow “mutual consent” claims

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Former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has denied Christian Purslow’s claims that his exit as manager was “was about as clearcut a case of mutual consent as I have ever been involved in.” Rafa said in an interview with the Independent:

“I read that he said this — I was preparing for the next season but after the meeting with Mr Broughton and Mr Purslow I realised that I had to accept the offer they made. I was very sad and my family were devastated when we realised after these meetings that we would leave. I knew I had to go.”

Benitez has also admitted to mistakes during his time in charge:

“Did we make mistakes? Obviously. But 82, 86 points, four trophies, three more finals in a difficult time when the owners were changing, when the chief executives were changing. A lot of things were changing. Now people can see it, no? It was a big, big problem. I’ll say it again, we made mistakes. But people are talking about players who were not good enough, if you put five or six of these players together, the cost would be five million. It’s not easy to wheel and deal and at the same time to win and sign players like Torres, Reina, Mascherano, Aquilani, Skrtel, Johnson, Lucas Leiva, Agger or Kuyt.”

He also revealed he wanted both Alberto Aquilani and Fiorentina’s Stevan Jovetic to replace Xabi Alonso last summer but money problems meant only one of the signings could take place, similar to the previous season when he wanted both Gareth Barry and Robbie Keane. Reflecting on how the money problems began to hamper the team’s efforts on the field, Rafa said:

“It was a long time, it wasn’t just one thing. The feeling was that something was wrong, we couldn’t do what we wanted to do. We were preparing the signings and the sales but we could see that we have some targets and we didn’t do it. . . I had a very good relationship with David Moores and Rick Parry but the only thing I wanted to do was to do things quicker because we didn’t have too much money. To be fair, sometimes we were doing good business without big money and sometimes we lost players. After the Americans arrived, everything changed. I thought it would be easier the first year, we signed Torres and everything was going well but little by little we had some money problems and all the decisions were subject to the money issues.”

Rafa also denied reports that players were unhappy in his last season as manager:

“It’s not true that I lost the dressing room. It was obvious that maybe some players were not happy but the majority of the players were very good professionals who were surprised by these stories in the same newspapers by the same journalists. Who was leaking them?”

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10 comments

  • steven says:

    CAN ANYONE GIVE ME THE FULL INTERVIEW?

  • magnumopus says:

    Who was the leak?

  • Joe Kelly says:

    Steven – it’s in Sunday’s Independent – I am so pissed off after reading it. magnumopus – strong rumours as to who the leak is “we apparently want a team of this person” !!!

  • Tanya says:

    Dear Rafa
    The majority of the fans were behind you. Thanks for all the work and wins you gave LFC and us the supporters. God Bless you and your family. YNWA.

  • stah howard says:

    who was the leak ? well the same journalist did help jamie carragher with his book.

  • reds says:

    I think he did a good job and he’s two times better than roy. He was just too stubbern at times, for example the zonal making, it just wasn’t working. Why roy sent one of our best midfielder on loan? The guy is good, he just need a chance to prove that. I watched him yesterday and he marshal the middle. Thanks rafa and wish you luck at inter.

  • Frank says:

    Rafa, legend, YNWA

  • JONESEY says:

    Dont think it matters now BUT WHAT DOES MATTER IS TOMORROW – For all our sakes lets hope RBS call-in the debt and we kiss goodbye to Hicks and Gillett forever more – COME ON RBS …………. You owe us this time.

  • Eric says:

    Rafa will be in my heart all my life and I wish him all the best. Look at all the things he had done and the trophies he won with us and after one bad season you get rid of him. They blame the manager for a 7th place finish but the real problem is obviously the owners. There was no money for Rafa to spend, he was forced to sell Alonso and like he said, he wanted both Aquilani and Jovetic but again, thanks to our American owners that could not happen. During the difficult period, everyone blamed Rafa, they didn’t realise what was going on behind the scenes and how difficult Rafa’s job was. I have to say I was really pissed when they got rid of Rafa, I mean if he was actually given money to spend I doubt we would have finished seventh. Look at where we are right now, fucking relegation zone, Rafa would never let that happen.

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