KENNY DALGLISH could be the perfect choice to take over from Rafa Benitez as Liverpool coach, according to no less a source than Benitez himself.
Speaking on the margins of a news conference at Appiano Gentile, near Milan yesterday, where the Spaniard was officially unveiled as the successor to Jose Mourinho as Inter Milan coach, Benitez’s thoughts inevitably turned to his former club.
“It’s true, it was really difficult for me to leave Liverpool because I was there for six years and obviously it was a sad day for me. One of my daughters is now seven years old so she has lived all her life in Liverpool. The fans have been amazing, fantastic with me and Liverpool is a big, big club so it was not easy. . . but the situation changed. I felt I needed to move and I had a perfect opportunity with this club. . . Hopefully it will be perfect for me and hopefully perfect for Inter. . .”
Speaking later to The Irish Times, Benitez offered an interesting reflection on a possible successor. Asked who would he would recommend as the next Liverpool manager, he said: "Kenny Dalglish. He is the best man for the job, no one knows the club better than Dalglish and he would be perfect there. He wants the job and, in my opinion, he should get it . . ."
Benitez furthermore denied his time at Liverpool had ended in acrimony, suggesting reports that he had fought badly with many of the Liverpool players were simply inaccurate.
“In the last few weeks, I have been in contact with the majority of the players and they all wished me the best . . . I received very positive messages from 95 per cent of them”
On the Inter front, Benitez was inevitably keen to avoid comparisons with his famous predecessor, Mourinho. He acknowledged that ‘the Special One’ would be a difficult act to follow but he argued that the stimulus of playing next autumn in the Intercontinental, European Super Cup and Italian Super Cup finals could see Inter continue on in the all-conquering style that saw them lift the Italian League, Italian Cup and Champions League titles this season.
“Mourinho did a great job here and this club had an almost perfect year. All of us coaches try to do important things and I want to as well. The players have shown that they have a winning mentality and I hope we can continue on in that way,” he said.
Inevitably, the new Inter coach, who has signed a two-year contract worth an annual €5 million, was offering no clues as to the club’s future transfer market intentions.
Benitez refused to confirm media speculation that Inter may well sell their talented Brazilian right back, Maicon, to Real Madrid whilst at the same time making a serious offer for Liverpool’s England captain Steven Gerrard. He added: “I’ll be looking for good players, for top -level players for a top-level club . . . but first I have to talk these things through with the club.”
Bearing in mind that his predecessor had an especially evolved relationship with the media, Italian colleagues wanted to know how Benitez viewed the football pundits: “I like to talk to the journalists but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”
Asked for his immediate impressions of Italy and Italian football, the new Inter coach did, however, predict there would be plenty of opportunities for “talking to the journalists”.
“We were on our holidays in Sardinia last week and wherever we went, there were journalists and paparazzi following us. My first impression was that here people breathe football all the time.”
