Rafa Benitez will be among those watching the Carabao Cup final on Sunday as two of his former sides do battle. The ex-Newcastle United manager has looked ahead to the game and reflected on his time at the club.
Two Carabao Cup Finals in three seasons? A Champions League push? Talk about a new stadium? Much has changed at Newcastle United since Rafa Benitez unwillingly left a shell of a team.
“I was very close to staying,” the former Newcastle manager admitted to ChronicleLive. “But, given the circumstances when I was going, Mike Ashley was not selling at the time, and we couldn’t wait. It was not a suitable project at the time because there was no intention to invest or enhance things, but we had to execute it.
“The timing was unfortunate, but it was what it was.” I couldn’t wait because it was evident he had no intention of investing and improving, therefore we couldn’t keep waiting.”
“We experienced some years of suffering without any chance to make real progress,” he told me. “Now that they have had this opportunity in the last few years, they are maturing and competing for prizes, which is incredible.
“It has been so many years. It has been a sleeping behemoth. It was unfortunate that they did not reach the level that the fans deserved, but they have now, and I am really happy for them.
“In modern football, if you have some money to invest, you may progress. You must compete with wealthy clubs, and if you cannot get the top players, it is extremely tough to win a championship.
“But Newcastle United has made significant improvements in terms of ownership, money, and staff over the last several years, so everyone is doing a fantastic job, and the fans are pleased. I believe they deserve to win, but I can’t say, ‘They must do it!’ because Liverpool fans will go, ‘Oh, Rafa!’ So I’m glad to see both teams there.”
So, can Newcastle end 70 years of misery against a struggling Liverpool side? Benitez can attest to the fact that anything can happen in a final.
Who could forget Benitez’s Liverpool side’s Champions League final victory over a glittering AC Milan team packed with serial winners, despite being 3-0 down at halftime? You all know what happened next.
Newcastle will not want to find themselves with a mountain to climb at halftime, as they did on their previous trip to Wembley a few years ago, and it is no accident that Howe’s team’s best performances have come after a fast start. Benitez is well aware of this.
“Newcastle United can play with intensity from the first minute and if they are right at the beginning, they can get results,” the manager remarked. “They’ve showed throughout the season.
“They usually win when they start out strong and score goals. Liverpool are a difficult opponent, but this is a final. “It will not be easy, but they will have opportunities.”
Tenth and thirteenth place finishes followed in 2018 and 2019, before Benitez decided to leave for China at the end of his contract, having grown bored of the club’s restraints at the time. Rather than linger on his departure, Benitez is’really thrilled’ that new additions such as Martin Dubravka, Fabian Schar, and Jacob Murphy are still so involved, and the Spaniard is really happy to see Newcastle compete again.
“It’s quite difficult to express, but when you have been in a place and you have been so well, so comfortable, when you see them doing well, you are really pleased,” he told me.
