For all that Rafa Benitez has an outstanding CV in football, the more you hear from the players who have worked under him – the more it becomes clear he was hard to play for.
Speaking on ‘The Football Historian Podcast‘, Adam Hammill spoke about his time as a Liverpool player in the summer of 2007: “I felt that it was more beneficial for myself to to be playing 30/40 games a season [on loan] rather than a handful a season [at Liverpool].
“I thought that, that was putting me in better stead for things to come.
“Funny enough when I was at Dunfermline and I went back to Liverpool, I did go straight back on loan, but it wasn’t before Celtic tried to sign me.
“So they offered money, a million or two, and they obviously tried to get me a there on the back of the the loan deal I had there.
“And then Rafa was like, ‘no’.
“But then rather than talk to me, he just sent me straight out.
“And you know, I always think to myself, ‘if I would have went and signed there, would it have have been different? What would have went on in my career?’
“But you know, it’s in the past and obviously I did go on to have a great career for myself.”
It seems clear that the then 19-year-old was open to a move to Celtic but was never given the chance to entertain the offer, before being sent straight out on loan to Southampton.
Rafa Benitez has a mixed reputation among former Liverpool players
We’ve heard from other ex-Reds like David Raven that the Spaniard was quite cold with them during training sessions at Melwood.
At this stage, the Scouser was a teenager who has scored once during 11 games in the SPL and the offer of £1 million could have been a good deal.
It was actually this fee (according to transfermarkt.co.uk) that we ended up selling the winger for in 2009 as he went to Barnsley.
Going on to be a club legend and scoring one of the great Wembley goals, the now 37-year-old who is still playing for Maghull – certainly went on to have a great career.
But the chance to play Champions League football for the Scottish giants does seems to be an opportunity that would have been a good deal for all parties – yet our former boss didn’t want it to happen.
You can watch Hammill’s comments on Benitez (from 20:13) via The Football Historian Podcast on YouTube:
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