Gerrard-Rafa: the truth?

Rafa Benitez probably understands better than most the words of Spain’s greatest ever writer, Miguel Cervantes, who once proclaimed that, “facts are the enemy of the truth.” In January 2009 a supposed rant against perceived unfairness being shown in favour of Manchester United, the then Liverpool boss listed a long list of grievances all punctuated by the word “Fact”. Now in his autobiography it is the turn of his former Liverpool captain, Steven Gerrard, to issue his own version of the ‘facts’ press conference. Gerrard felt “embarrassed” for him after the speech and United players told him that Ferguson laughed at Rafa as he “got him”. Just a reminder. After the pressa, Liverpool could have beaten Stoke if a Gerrard shoot had gone in after hitting the post and later on, Liverpool had a run of 11 consecutive victories. After the ‘Rafa rant’, Liverpool’s point per game went up and goal scoring too -over an extra half a goal per game!! Liverpool scored 4 against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and 4 against Real Madrid in Anfield. I don’t see any effect post-rant. And it was not a rant. Watch the video. But I guess history gets written by those who win and a Manchester United with a bench that cost almost as much as half of the line up of Liverpool won that league. It is just slightly disappointing to hear Gerrard backing up Ferguson’s side of the story. The former Liverpool captain goes on in the book to explain just why he felt that the relationship between the two was at best ‘frosty’. “I don’t think Rafa Benitez liked me as a person,” says Gerrard, stopping short of adding the word, ‘fact’. In the book, Steven Gerrard; My Story, he claims that even before the two had met, Benitez when introduced to Gerrard’s mum during the European Championships in Portugal asked her, “Does Steven like money,” implying that was why he was considering a lucrative offer from Chelsea at the time. He also claims that he preferred the Spanish speaking players to the English ones and that at press conferences and in the dressing room he would refer to them by their nicknames, while always addressing him as Gerrard. But ‘facts’ as we know never begin to tell the whole story, not least when probably the main purpose of the publisher’s PR exercise is to generate the maximum amount of controversy in order to try to achieve the highest number of book sales. To that end there is a sharp focus on all the perceived negative side of the relationship yet only a seemingly cursory mention of the positive side of the partnership. First and foremost, Steven Gerrard has also let it be known in the past that, in his opinion, Rafa Benitez was the best coach he ever played for and what is also undeniable is that the best football he ever played was under the tutelage of the current Real Madrid manager. It goes without saying that, personality wise, the two men are poles apart. Benitez would probably admit that he has never been the type of manager to put a consoling arm around the player’s shoulders leaving Gerrard to almost inevitably perceive him as a manager that merely pushed to get the best he possibly could out of him. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle and it’s almost certainly an exaggeration to say there was a cold relationship between the two men and nothing else. Even Gerrard himself has said that it was Benitez’s attitude that motivated him to succeed because what he wanted to do was impress the coach. But let’s deal with some ‘facts’. Rafa has called Gerrard, ‘Steve’ or ‘Stevie’ hundreds of times. And many witnesses confirmed this to me this week. No one was keener or pushed harder to keep Stevie Gerrard at Liverpool than Rafa Benitez. There were many decisions made behind the scenes because Rafa knew just how important a player he was to the club. Those decisions are part of the running of a club and will remain private, but Rafa had a clear idea that Stevie, without being very vocal, was their best player and had to be looked after. Rafa’s alleged comment to Gerrard’s mother about whether he liked money was probably no more or less than a way of asking why was he not happy and why he wanted to leave. In fact, the conversation did not start with a question about money. In a recent television interview with La Sexta in Spain the very last question posed to Rafa Benitez asked him about the allegations made in the book. Keen to maintain a dignified silence about the whole affair he did just mention that he always appreciated ‘Stevie’ as a player but really didn’t want to add more fuel to flames. But nothing is ever as simple as it seems. For example, Gerrard was always a great fan of Xabi Alonso and was not shy about saying that he should never have been sold. The reality however is at the time this was a Liverpool side that did not have the money to buy players of any real quality without selling first. Xabi Alonso eventually made his mind up about leaving and Real Madrid wanted to buy him. When that happens, it is virtually impossible to stop the process (unless the documents are sent too late!). At the time the person considered to be the ideal replacement for him was Gareth Barry and Steven Gerrard was one of the most positive reports the club got regarding the ability of Barry to lead the midfield alongside him. The deal did not take place but made much more sense at the time than the analysis made in hindsight. The thing is if both men, both impressive in their own ways, meet one day for lunch and talk about all this, they will not agree what is fact and what is feeling. The truth is such a complex fella.