RAFA TURNS TO SHANKS IN QUEST FOR SUCCESS
Mark Platt 18 January 2005
Rafael Benitez has revealed how the legend of the late Bill Shankly is helping him in his quest to make Liverpool Football Club great again.
The current Reds' boss admits he is a dedicated disciple of Shanks and that, with the help of his wife Montse, he is learning more and more about the inspirational former Anfield manager with each passing day.
"Bill Shankly brought fresh air to Anfield. They breathed ambition, discipline and success. So now what my wife and I do is learn about him every day," says Benitez in the latest edition of Champions League magazine.
"Montse spends some of her day reading books about the history of this great club and every day, when I finally get home from Melwood, she teaches me more and more about Liverpool FC and what made it great.
"Shankly changed Liverpool's mentality into the hungry one that fuelled their desire to win. That was the basis for the Liverpool teams that later, even without him, went on to win those four European Cups.
"My challenge is to find, teach and inspire the old Liverpool FC spirit, the mentality, the philosophy of respect and the original values of football that our club made famous over generations.
"Rather than try and mimic one individual era or team, the task now is to distil all these great qualities that made Liverpool FC successful and legendary and then base the new era around them - but with some of the modern ideas and discoveries adapted into the mix."
There are many similarities between Liverpool Football Club's modern day founding father and the man entrusted with bringing back the glory days of the sixties, seventies and eighties.
One of the most striking is their passion and obsession for the game, and Benitez adds: "It is true that I think too much about football, I always have. I spend ten hours or more every day in Melwood and when I come back to my house I still think about football.
"I'm on the sofa watching a video, maybe an old one from great Anfield nights in the 1970s or a scouting video or one taken of our next opponents, then I talk to my wife about my day at Melwood and all the things that are unresolved in my head. I fight hard to find some time for my daughters, but the rest...it's football."
Shanks & Rafa - a meeting of two great football minds
Home 