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Posts Tagged ‘rafael-benitez’

• Manager backs down from criticisms of Benítez
• ‘I didn’t mean to be in any way critical or negative’

The Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson has apologised for any offence caused to his predecessor Rafael Benítez for criticising the state of the club when he took over.

Last week Hodgson bemoaned the number of “expensive failures” at Anfield when he arrived, prompting the Spaniard to hit back, saying: “He’s talking about things that he doesn’t know.

“Some people cannot see a priest on a mountain of sugar. Instead of talking about flips and flops, he has to concentrate on his job, try to do his best and not talk about the level of his players or the new players.”

Hodgson today tried to calm the situation, saying: “I totally agree with him that every manager needs to work with his own club.

“If I have upset him by saying something which I certainly didn’t mean to be in any way critical or negative about his work at the club, then I would happily apologise because there was never any intention to do that.

“As far as I am concerned I work at Liverpool and do my best for Liverpool, and he will work at Inter and do his best for Inter.

“I have no comments to make about other people’s opinions – I’ll allow them to make them and in this case I’ll accept them if that’s what they want to be.”

Roy HodgsonRafael BenítezLiverpoolguardian.co.uk

• ‘Each press conference is worse than the last’
• Spaniard irked by claim he had ostracised Kenny Dalglish

Rafael Benítez has launched a withering attack on Roy Hodgson, telling him to stop complaining about what he inherited from him at Liverpool and suggesting Hodgson does not fully understand the intricacies of life at Anfield.

Hodgson, who has suffered a difficult start to his tenure and the job of succeeding the popular Benítez, has aimed a series of recent barbs in the Spaniard’s direction bemoaning the size of the rebuilding job that faced him, claiming the squad lacks quality in depth and features other “people’s left-overs”. He also tried to claim that he has got Kenny Dalglish truly back on board at the club, whereas the legendary former player and manager was marginalised under Benítez. This last claim has particularly irked his predecessor.

Benítez, whose Internazionale side face Tottenham Hotspur tomorrow night, hit back that some men, in other words Hodgson, “cannot see a priest on a mountain of sugar”, whereas most people could see the black-clad figure against the white backdrop.

“I feel that Mr Hodgson, he doesn’t understand,” Benítez said. “Every single press conference is worse than the last one. He’s talking about things he doesn’t know. He doesn’t understand, maybe he has been in the job for not so long.

“Instead of talking about the flips and the flops, he has to concentrate on his players and do his best. He has a good [big] job to do. He signed nine players [in the summer]. I left that squad and with £10m net spending, I left that squad with £300m value. Thirteen internationals.

“So instead of talking about flips and flops, he has to concentrate on the job, try to do his best and not talk about the level of his players. Let the new players come in and concentrate, try to do their best, because it will be the best for the club and the best for the fans.

“We gave the fans the pride. Again. We fight for the fans, we fight for the club and we fight for our players. Maybe he cannot understand this.”

It was Benítez who brought back Dalglish to Liverpool, in a role that incorporated ambassadorial duties and youth academy work. “I brought back Kenny Dalglish to do a role in the club,” Benítez said. “Christian Purslow [then] gave to him another role. So he [Hodgson] doesn’t know but I will explain to him.”

Rafael BenítezRoy HodgsonLiverpoolDavid Hytnerguardian.co.uk

• Former Liverpool manager hits back at Tom Hicks claim
• ‘I was watching the fans and I was really sad’

Liverpool do not catch the eye in a Premier League table that shows them interred in 19th place but they are still prominent in the mind of a manager who left them in the summer. Considering that Rafael Benítez is now in command of the Champions League holders Internazionale and has the Group