You don't have to like Rafa Benitez, but you have to respect the hustle
Rafa Benitez has another job and once again, it's at a big-name club in one of the world's best leagues. He's going to take over Newcastle, who ousted Steve McClaren in an effort to make a last ditch attempt at avoiding relegation. But most impressive isn't that he's been handed the keys to another club, it's that he's getting paid huge money too.
It's the circle of soccer, at least to Benitez. He takes a job, gets paid, leaves the club with plenty of unhappy people in his wake and gets another well-paying job. At this point, the Spaniard's is basically an artist, and it's beautiful. You can't hate that hustle.
There aren't many left in soccer who like Benitez. As few think he is a good manager and, seeing as he was named the manager at Real Madrid only nine months ago, it's baffling that he continues to convince those with jobs and money to offer that he is worthy. But he does. He does it time and time again.
Benitez's last six jobs have been Valencia, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Chelsea, Napoli and Real Madrid. There's not a bad job in the bunch. They all play in one of the four best leagues in the world and are all shoo-ins to make the Champions League, or at least very serious contenders for a place in Europe's glamour competition. The man isn't slumming it by any means. He's thriving, and so is his bank account.
Now he's heading to St. James' Park, where the Magpies are second from the bottom. He's reportedly getting paid the same $5.5 million per year that he was at Real Madrid and he'll surely get a nice bonus if he keeps Newcastle from the drop. And if he doesn't? There's no way he's going to manage in the Championship so he'll walk away three months later with a fat check in hand and go looking for his next job.
At this point, Benitez is just trolling for owners with too much money and not enough sense. The man has figured out the easiest and most lucrative hustle in the game. Best of all, it's legal.
Consider:
Benitez started Liverpool's dive into despair, but then looked to Inter Milan. Jose Mourinho had recently led them to Champions League glory, but he was gone and Internazionale still had all the money from being among Europe's elite. They also had Massimo Moratti as chairman, whose leadership was curious at the best of times. It was a payday waiting to happen and Benitez lept at it. That job didn't even last five months, but he got paid handsomely.
When Chelsea fired Roberto Di Matteo, they needed a new boss and they only wanted him to lead the team until the end of the season. That was perfect for Benitez, who saw the chance to cash a Roman Abramovich check for six months - and Abramovich's checks are exclusively big - and not have to worry about job security or the long-term. Plus, life in London isn't so bad.
Days after his time at Chelsea was over, he took off to Napoli. There, Aurelio De Laurentiis was waiting for him. It was perfect, seeing as De Laurentiis is among the most eccentric chairmen in all of the sport - which is quite the accomplishment. The club also had recently been in the Champions League and sold some players for a tidy sum so money wasn't hard to come by. Perfect.
It was perfect until Real Madrid came calling. Nobody in the world excels in overspending quite like the Merengues and no club president is as delusional as Florentino Perez. It was the perfect fit and Cristiano Ronaldo may have been upset with Benitez within a month, but it didn't matter because those checks kept clearing. And when his reign ended after four months, so be it. Real Madrid still had to pay him a multi-million dollar buyout.
That brings him to Newcastle, where Mike Ashley is unpopular, desperate and sitting on a stack of Premier League TV cash.
Benitez was once bandied about as one of the best managers in the world. This was in his Valencia days, when his 4-2-3-1 system was new and different. It tore teams apart and it worked at Liverpool too, until it didn't. Now he's not even among the best few dozen managers in the game. But his game isn't management at this point. He's about playing the game, and that's cashing checks. He finds the right clubs, with the right financial situations, and the chairmen most prone to hallucinations.
You may not want Benitez as your manager, but you have to respect the hustle. Nobody does it any better.
Benitez's time at Liverpool started brilliantly, but he left the club a mess.
Mike Ashley is Benitez's latest victim.
