For everyone's sake at Everton, Rafa Benitez should target the Carabao Cup this season.
Even winning the competition for the first time in the Blues' history might not bring him universal love from among the club’s long-suffering fanbase – but it would at least earn him plenty of respect.
Given his previous stint at Liverpool and the infamous ‘small club’ remark, Benitez’s arrival at Goodison Park is the most-controversial managerial appointment in Merseyside football history. But his hiring draws parallels with when former Arsenal boss George Graham took over at their north London rivals, Tottenham Hotspur.
The White Hart Lane faithful never truly took the Scot to their hearts – he’d actually been both a Gunners player and title-winning manager, so it would be akin to his compatriot Sir Kenny Dalglish appearing in the Everton dugout rather than ‘just’ Benitez – but when he delivered silverware in the shape of a 1-0 victory over Leicester City in the 1999 League Cup final, it was the closest they ever got to singing his name.
Broadcaster and Spurs fan Danny Kelly told the ECHO last month: “Nobody even sung George’s name at Spurs in the three years that he was there.
“At the time we were prone to singing ‘X-X and his blue and white army’ depending on who the manager was at any given time.
“As the trophy was being presented, George, as was his habit, was there with his rain mac on, and people chanted: ‘Bloke in a coat and his blue and white army.’
“That was as near as we ever got to giving George praise.”
Regardless of whether or not in time Benitez, a man who guided Liverpool to the Champions League and FA Cup, is ever able to win a place in the Gwladys Street’s affections, he’d do well to prioritise the Carabao Cup this term.
It’s not just Evertonians themselves who think that though but the Spaniard’s old friends turned rivals from across Stanley Park.
The natural reflex reaction from many Blues might be to think that the opinion of another Kopite on what Benitez should or shouldn’t do at Goodison is about as welcome as a hole in the head.
However, the words of Liverpool-based writer, broadcaster and film producer Neil Atkinson when in conversation with the ECHO’s David Prentice and Neil Jones on a Goal interview published shortly after the 61-year-old’s appointment shed light on how Everton can turn the Benitez situation around, so the reaction of Reds to his crossing the park changes from either bemusement or amusement to concern.
Atkinson said: “If I were Rafa Benitez, I’d be saying ‘let me have a proper run at the League Cup, let me really go for the League Cup. I think I can win the League Cup with you.’
“He’d back himself in a final scenario against any manager on the planet.
“His argument would be if I can get you to the final, that means taking it seriously from week one and accepting that means we’ve got additional games and we go all the way for that.
“If you want to talk about his pathway to a degree of longevity at Everton and you want to talk about flipping this on its head and it not being about Liverpool supporters going ‘isn’t it mildly funny that they’ve got Benitez’, at least for some, a lot more for others, I think the way you do that is if there’s an open top bus tour and a show of Evertonian strength on the streets of Liverpool.
“I tell you what – I don’t want to see that, led by Rafa Benitez, no thank you, I’m not up for that.
“But the idea that if Everton did have a trophy to parade at the end of a season, you would see thousands of Evertonians on the streets for that, because it’s been too long, far, far, far too long.
“Everton have never won the League Cup full stop. If I was Rafa I’d say ‘give me one season, the first one out of the gate, in which we have a full go at the cups.”
Atkinson added: “From there, there’s genuinely an argument, if you appoint Rafa Benitez, your quickest way to Champions League football could be to get European football and win the Europa League.
“That could be as quick an idea to get into the Champions League as it is finishing ahead of the two Manchester clubs, Liverpool and Chelsea.
“If you’re Rafa, you’re able to say ‘we’ve just got to get European football’ and one way of getting European football is to get a trophy.
“If you get a trophy it buys everyone time, gets everyone off your back and then there’s a European adventure.
“Before you know where you are, Rafa Benitez in Europe is able to take that Everton side and those Everton supporters to places.
“Maybe they’ll never love him, maybe they never will, but they’ll love big European aways at Lille and Milan.
“It might be not bad thing to divorce the lads on the pitch from the people in the dugout if Benitez can make it work.
“Benitez would be quite happy to be never loved as a manager but for his teams to be successful. That’s the way he sees it.”
