Advertisement

The odd choice of Rafa Benitez as new manager of Real Madrid

The odd choice of Rafa Benitez as new manager of Real Madrid

Rafael Benitez was born in Madrid, played football in Real Madrid’s youth system and started his coaching career with Real Madrid B. For the 55-year-old manager, who was introduced as Real Madrid's new manager on Wednesday, a move to the Santiago Bernabeu must be a dream fulfilled after nearly 30 years in the managerial ranks.

For Real Madrid, the decision to bring in Benitez appears to be more based on romance than logic.

Benitez replaces Italian Carlo Ancelotti, who won the Copa del Rey, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup in his two seasons at Real Madrid. When asked about the next manager being a native Spaniard, club president Florentino Perez famously said that it "would be very good if he speaks Spanish."

Benitez speaks Spanish, obviously, and the list of trophies in his cabinet is commendable: the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, FIFA Club World Cup, FA Cup, Coppa Italia, UEFA Cup and a collection of super cups. However, Ancelotti won trophies for Real Madrid, including the highly coveted 10th European Cup – "La Decima."

Ancelotti’s exit should spell a change in focus on winning La Liga, but Benitez is an odd choice when a club looks to claim a league title. True, Benitez won La Liga twice while managing Valencia from 2001 to 2004, but the Spaniard has not won a domestic league title over the 11 years since he left Spain for Liverpool.

In six seasons at Anfield, Benitez never brought Liverpool a single Premier League trophy. At Inter Milan, Benitez took a treble-winning team and got himself fired before Christmas. In his most impressive coaching performance of the past half-decade, Benitez managed Chelsea to a Europa League title and qualified for the Champions League despite presiding over an environment where the home fans resented him more than the away fans. While the supporters abuse may have served as training for managing Real Madrid, Benitez still did not win the league.

Rafael Benitez's Napoli side did not qualify for the Champions League this season. (AP Photo)
Rafael Benitez's Napoli side did not qualify for the Champions League this season. (AP Photo)

With Napoli, Benitez managed a strong first season by finishing third in the league to earn a Champions League playoff spot. Also, winning the Coppa Italia provided a platform from which to grow. Sadly, that platform would collapse when Napoli failed to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League. Add in a fourth-place finish that left Napoli out of the Champions League and no trophies to show in his second season, and a promotion to Real Madrid seems odd for a manager who was likely getting the sack if he had not already announced his resignation before the finale.

If Benitez is the hope for stability at Real Madrid, he is indeed a curious hire. This particularly unstable manager has coached four different teams over the past six seasons, and he took off a season after the messy exit at Inter Milan. If he wants any hope of staying in the job, Benitez’s primary focus upon arrival should be to win the Spanish league. Real Madrid has only claimed one La Liga trophy in the past seven seasons, and that lone victory came under Jose Mourinho in the campaign that sent Pep Guardiola on a sabbatical. One season later, Madrid would have likely sacked Mourinho if he had not walked out the door to Chelsea.

Fortunately for Benitez, he is not exactly being asked to work miracles upon arrival. If Benitez made Mourinho a beautiful bed to sleep in at Chelsea, Ancelotti gifted Benitez a dream house in Madrid. Benitez inherits a super team that narrowly missed on potentially becoming the first back-to-back European champions in the Champions League era. Also, this squad won 30 of 38 La Liga games, which was the same number of wins as champion Barcelona. With 92 points on the board, Real Madrid only missed on the league title by two points.

Considering the squad, Benitez could well be holding up multiple major trophies in one year’s time.

Ancelotti probably did not deserve to be fired, but Perez and Real Madrid hardly surprise with these politically driven changes at this point. Given his personal history with the club and the current quality in the squad, Benitez could well go on to win the league and bring stability to a post that has been anything but stable.

Best-case scenario, especially for Real Madrid romantics: Benitez wins numerous league titles and stays for an elongated period of time. Worst-case scenario? Real Madrid fails to earn results under Benitez, and the Spaniard is sacked by the board over the winter break after the club overreacts to a slow start in La Liga. Zinedine Zidane would probably take over in that event, and Cristiano Ronaldo could use the instability to negotiate his exit.

Most likely, Real Madrid will win the Copa del Rey in 2016 and finish second in La Liga. Benitez should get two years to win the domestic title. If Real Madrid does not make it as far as the semifinals in each of the next two European campaigns, though, Benitez will likely find himself looking for work.

Shahan Ahmed is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. He has previously written about the 2014 World Cup and 2013 Confederations Cup and regularly provides opinions on the English Premier League, UEFA Champions League, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A and Spanish La Liga. Follow Shahan on Twitter: @ShahanLA and @perfectpass.