Diego Forlan writes a weekly column for The National, appearing each Friday. The former Manchester United, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid striker has been the top scorer in Europe twice and won the Golden Boot at the 2010 World Cup. Forlan's column is written with the assistance of European football correspondent Andy Mitten.
It was less than a year after they had won the Uefa Champions League under Jose Mourinho when I arrived at Inter Milan in 2011, but the club had gone through significant changes. Mourinho had left for Real Madrid and was replaced by Rafa Benitez, who had been at Liverpool.
Benitez lasted less than six months. He won the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi, but he took a team who had won the treble on a poor run. Inter were sixth in Serie A by December, 13 points off the top of the table.
He had lost twice to AC Milan as Inter’s 46-match unbeaten home record came to an end. They also lost in the Champions League to Tottenham Hotspur.
I wondered what had gone wrong and asked my new teammates.
They said Benitez was a good, demanding coach, but that he had fallen out with the club doctor. Benitez likes to have control wherever he works. He is a football obsessive, meticulous in detail and preparation. He trains his players hard and puts high demands on them in training. He wants dedication and loyalty in return.
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At Inter, his opinion clashed with that of the doctor. Benitez thought certain injured players were able to play again after two weeks’ recovery; the doctors thought it should be three or four. Without players or the club doctor – an integral part of any football club – onside, he struggled.
Benitez was not shy and told his chairman to back him with new players in the January transfer window. Inter’s owner Massimo Moratti refused and sacked him.
Benitez then had a spell out of football before taking over as Chelsea manager on an interim basis.
I knew he was a top manager because of his track record. When I played in Spain, players would always tell me that Benitez’s sides were hard to play against, especially as a striker against their defence. The Valencia team he left were really hard for me to play against at Villarreal.
Benitez was linked with Real Madrid after winning the league and Uefa Cup with Valencia in 2004. I thought that might be his time to go to the club where he had been a player for their B team for seven years, a team he later managed.
He is also from Madrid and was briefly an assistant to Vicente del Bosque – the last Spanish manager of Real Madrid who lasted more than a season. Instead of going to Madrid in 2004, Benitez joined Liverpool, where he won the European Cup in his first season, an incredible achievement. He continued to be linked to Madrid at Liverpool.
Benitez is a fine coach who has won at least one trophy or promotion with every club he has coached since 1997. Even his Tenerife team in 2000 won promotion. His style divides people because it is his way or no way, but he is no different from other great coaches there.
I was a little surprised when he became Madrid coach this summer. I thought he would have gone a decade ago, but the time is right for him now after Carlo Ancelotti, especially as the other top coaches were all hired elsewhere.
Madrid wanted their first Spanish manager since Del Bosque, but can Benitez get the control at Madrid which he has had at other clubs? I doubt it. No coach has the control at Madrid that they can get elsewhere, but they go there knowing that.
Or, in the words of former Madrid coach and my old assistant manager Carlos Queiroz: “You think with your heart and say yes when Madrid offer you a job – and then you think with your head.”
Players and managers go there because it is Real Madrid. They know they will not last for five minutes if they are not successful, but they cannot help thinking that they could be successful at one of the biggest clubs in the world, a club which pays very well.
Benitez will know this. He knows Real Madrid better than any of their managers since Del Bosque. He knows he needs to win a major trophy in his first season otherwise he will lose his job – that means the European Cup or Primera Liga this season.
Even then, his job could be at risk. He was at Madrid in 2002 when the hugely popular Del Bosque was sacked after winning the European Cup.
Benitez has been at big clubs where the presidents have given him the control he wants, even at places such as Napoli. It is to Benitez’s credit that he has adapted and been successful in other countries as he was at Liverpool and Napoli. That is not easy for anyone.
He will not get that level of control at Madrid, but can you blame him for accepting the job of Real Madrid, one of the two biggest clubs in the country where he is from, even if the shelf life is usually very short? I can’t.
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