Former Liverpool first team coach, and now manager of AIK Solna, Alex Miller has stated that he believes Rafa Benitez’s downfall was because he didn’t have anyone around him to keep him in check. He told the Sunday Mail:
“I don’t want to talk myself up but people don’t realise the contribution I made at Liverpool. The rest of the people around Rafa were yes men and massaged his ego. That’s the way he liked it – he killed himself.”
In the interview, Miller also revealed that as Chief Scout he told Liverpool about Robin van Persie when he was a 16 year old at Feyenoord, and also that he mentioned the talents of Cristiano Ronaldo to the Reds 18 months before Manchester United bought the player.
Always sad to see this kind of thing go on.
I’m sure Alex feels very hard done to, but this isn’t the way to go about it – the truth will come out over time, there’s no need to big yourself up.
And I’m sure he did spot both Van Persie and Ronaldo; equally he’ll have ‘mentioned’ hundreds of others who didn’t make it….even some we went on to sign and didn’t. That’s the life of a scout. Perhaps the reports weren’t comprehensive enough to persuade Liverpool to buy.
As a supporter of Rafa during his reign, I can completely believe what Miller is saying. Being a Liverpool fan means supporting the manager no matter what. It’s the greatest way to be and in my book, the only way to be. But we need less of the blind support for Rafa now. He’s hardly doing the club any favours at the moment, is he?
And for what gain would Miller lie? Something went wrong with Rafa, and his stubbornness was, I think, at the centre of it. Why is this so unbelievable?
It’s not unbelievable at all. It’s very believable. But there’s no value in Miller bringing it up now. He probably feels very raw about ending up at Solna instead of a premier league team. But if he took them to success people would say “maybe he had a bit more of a key role at Liverpool than he got credit for”, and his stock would rise accordingly.
Rafa no doubt did have his faults, the time for Miller to point them out was while he was working for him. Saying it now is pointless and puts him (Miller) in a bad light.
I always felt maybe Rafa was too stubborn and often this compromised the team. No doubt he asssembled a fantastic team but they never quite performed as well as they could or should of. Player for player the first team is fantastic or was when we had Mascherano and Alonso. Should have won the prem that season but Raffa was too concerned about ranting about what was going on at Manu etc… Forget about 2005 the season we came 2nd the team was twice as good as that one. Raffa only come good in that 2005 final as he had to make enforced substitutions and it just so happened that every man and his dog could see Hamman should have started that game and when he came on was one of our best players! I agree with miller coming out and saying his bit.
maybe it might put him in a bad light, but what is the man to do if he is simply answering a question. I think most people would have no bones about speaking honestly after the fact. It would have been far worse if he said something during Rafa’s reign.
The story is also totally believeable. Rafa also fell out with Pako Ayesteran, aledgedly because Rafa would not listen to what he had to say.
I was a big fan of Rafa too, but even while he was in charge his controlling, autocratic tendencies were plain to see, without rose tinted specs on.
Rafa got a lot of support because most people thought we were stuck with him! He dined out on 2005 for a long time. I think will do well at Inter but a lot of stories coming out about him put him are believable and I think that is why we finished 7th. Even Souness could have finished 7th with that team. If he’d have stayed most of our squad bar Kuyt would have wanted to leave.
Why isnt it the way to go about it? Rafa was mouthing off nearly every time he had a chance I belive he was the man who brought Liverpool crashin down. He had the chance to sign a striker but signed aqua who was injured…he treat players like they were robots without feelings..and he bought a lot of rubbish players.
So I feel that it is right for someone who was there when the reds were on the up to speak about some of the mistakes made behind scenes!
It is like a breath of fresh air having Roy here and I am sure he would conduct himself correctly..
Not sure I rate Alex Miller’s contribution more than Pako Ayestaráns. I think Pako’s departure had a much more significant impact.
Dave well said mate Miller has only ended up making himself look silly
Whatever your opinion of Rafa’s team selection and his stubborness he is a top man – making a donation to the Hillsborough disaster charity and also for conducting himself with dignity in a very difficult situation – so what if he’s not Sigmund Freud or the players friend – the fact is that our vastly overpaid bunch of footballing millionaires didn’t wear the shirt with pride or purpose last year – good luck Rafa YNWA and also now Roy is in charge he will receive a similar kind of support.It’s too easy to just blame Rafa it’s more complicated than that.
His comments are a bit pointless really, so Houllier did not sign Ronaldo (we tried) or Van Persie, that is really nothing to do with Benitez, so why bring it up.
Alex Miller has to take some of the blame for bringing in expensive flops such as Cheyrou, Diao, Cisse etc, they arrived under his watch.
Benitez was stubborn, so what, others might call that having belief in his convictions. He had a track record (pre Yanks) to back that up.
Benitez downfall was more a case of losing focus on team affairs and focusing on fighting board room battles.
As an older fan I appreciate the fact Benitez spoke out against the Yanks, it’s not like anyone like MIller or local ex players did.
He fought for the future of the club rather than short term success. He could have walked long before he did as many other managers have done, recently Martin O’Neill.
Yes you might call that stubbornness, I call it determination to win, it was the same sort of bloody minded determination that the great man espoused.
why diddnt he stand up to rafa publicly, after all he was not a yes man ?
why did he not say it when he left ?
if he is such a genius why is he now at fc neverheardof ?
by the way when will we find out who recomended the two italian duds – we should be told
It doesn’t take a genius to recognise faults and criticise another man’s performance. Miller is clearly not a great footballing man, but it is undoubted that Rafa has some serious personality issues that have impeded his ability to win.
You can argue the relative merits of what a good manager should be like, but I think 1 thing we can all agree on is he should not allow himself to get distracted by other teams and off pitch infighting. Mourinho had plenty of troubles but he never once let it compromise his footballing performance. Another good quality is knowing when to give up, Benitez’s rep is forver tarnished, and the club damaged, by his “perserverance”.
How dare any of you “mouth off” about a man you know little about, in a worse way than you accuse him of doing. Maybe he should have kept his mouth shut, but how many of you would do the same if asked about a similar experience?
well said john!! n gd7 wat the hell are u on about, u dont kno nothing about wat rafa went thru, the man worked his arseoff for us n its not his fault the two yanks didn back him, purslow hicks n gillett all backstabbed him, they promised him players but wat did they bring him….they told him he had to sell a top player to buy 2!!! im surprised he idn leave us earliar….the mans a legend!!! RAFA Y.N.W.A
dowd gave us nothing tonight as usual, calling man city players by name instead of booking them, what a phoney the sooner this type of ref goes out of the game the better. all ive seen this season already in every game not just liverpool are bad game changing decisions by crap up their own arse referees.
Rafa might not be the kind of people oriented manager but is really a man values and care. He showed that in his support for the Hillsborough victims, and how he walked off without saying much about internal strife and his last words as departing manager … you’ll never walk alone. It is good that he was not washing his dirty laundry in public. Roy bring a different managerial approach to the club. Let’s give the club time and we will be there. Alex might have regrets but he too makes mistakes. Cheyrou was a flop. We did consider Alex’s recommendation of Ronaldo but were too slow to respond to this. Again this goes back to the board room issues even before the yanks. Having said that, the yanks got to go.
Perhaps today we saw what we lost when Rafa was kicked out….
I hope this is not a sign of things to come
What’s the point of 20/20 hindsight. Every manager has his own style, and the club should stick to it. I’m sure he recommended loads of players that went on to become world-beaters, as did a hundred other scouts.
If he’s that good, I’d expect to see the next Pele and Maradona coming out of AIK Solna. Until that day, Rafa Benitez, autocratic tendencies and all, is still a better manager than Alex Miller. We thank Rafa for the memories, and put our full support behind Roy Hodgson and his own brand of management.
hodgson will be the first manager to get sack this season liverpool played like an amateur team no chemistry among the players why aquilani on loan why poulsen on the bench why substituted torres when ngog was the worst players with johnson.hodgson is not the right manager for lfc
Voland’s short and sweet comment is what’s on my mind today.
It’s only taken two games for Roy Hodgson’s Liverpool to match Rafa Benitez’s worst defeat at the club.
No disrespect to Manchester City but if we can get beaten 3-0 by them then things are looking even worse than they did last year.
On the bright side, we’re only five points (and 15 goals) behind the league leaders!