In the history of Everton Football Club few major decisions have been as ill-judged, ill-suited or ill-fated as Farhad Moshiri’s baffling choice of Rafa Benítez as Everton manager in June 2021.

A former Liverpool manager who was despised on the Blue half of Merseyside, Benítez followed the illustrious Carlo Ancelotti into the royal blue hotseat. The appointment was doomed from the start and brought to a premature end after six-and-a-half poisonous months that left Everton embroiled in a relegation battle and Evertonians on the brink of despair.

Rafael Benítez Maudes was born on 16 April, 1960, in Madrid. A promising midfielder, his playing career was cut short by injuries during his time with Parla. The setback propelled him into coaching, where his meticulous nature and deep tactical understanding became evident.

Benítez started managing Real Madrid’s youth teams in the early 1990s, establishing himself as a keen tactician. Success followed with lower-league teams such as Extremadura, who he led to promotion to La Liga in 1997. His big breakthrough came in 2001 when he was appointed manager of Valencia.

At the Mestalla, Benítez led the club to its first La Liga title in 31 years during the 2001/02 season. He repeated the feat in 2003/04, adding the UEFA Cup that same year. His Valencia side was known for its defensive solidity and ability to counterattack effectively. ‘It wasn’t about having the best players,’ Benítez said. ‘But about building a team that worked as one.’

Despite his success, disputes with the Valencia board over transfer policies led to his departure in 2004. He sought new opportunities and found himself at the helm at Anfield in summer 2004, where his career would reach new heights.

Succeeding Gérard Houllier, his first season delivered one of the most iconic moments in Liverpool history: the UEFA Champions League final against AC Milan on 25 May, 2005. Trailing 3-0 at halftime, Liverpool staged a miraculous comeback, scoring three goals in six minutes and ultimately winning on penalties.

The following year, Liverpool won the FA Cup in another dramatic final against West Ham, settled by penalties after a 3-3 draw. Benítez also led Liverpool to a second Champions League final in 2007, though they lost to AC Milan.

While his tactical brilliance was evident, Benítez’s tenure at Liverpool was not without controversy. His relationship with the club’s American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, was fraught with tension over transfer policies. He often clashed with rival managers, and his pragmatic approach to football sometimes drew criticism for being overly cautious.

‘Football is made up of subjective feeling, of suggestion and, in that, Anfield is unbeatable,’ wrote Jorge Valdano, the former Argentina international turned football journalist, in a memorable take down. ‘Put a shit hanging from a stick in the middle of this passionate, crazy stadium and there are people who will tell you it's a work of art. It's not: it's a shit hanging from a stick.’

One incident that came to haunt Benítez was his infamous ‘small club’ remark about Everton following a 2007 Merseyside derby. He later clarified, ‘I was referring to their defensive style in that game, but it was taken differently.’ The comment became a lasting source of tension with Everton fans.

After leaving Liverpool in 2010, Benítez remained beloved by many of the club’s supporters. His continued presence in Merseyside, where he supported local charities and attended fan events, solidified his legacy as a Liverpool icon.

Following his departure from Anfield, Benítez succeeded José Mourinho at Inter Milan in 2010, but his tenure lasted just six months due to disappointing results and conflicts with the club’s hierarchy.

In 2012, Benítez became interim manager at Chelsea. His appointment was met with hostility from Chelsea fans due to his Liverpool connections. Despite this, he led the club to a UEFA Europa League title and a third-place Premier League finish.

Benítez then moved to Napoli in 2013, where he won the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana. In 2015, he was appointed manager of Real Madrid, but his tenure was short-lived. Tensions with key players and inconsistent results led to his dismissal after just seven months.

In 2016, Benítez took over at Newcastle United, a club struggling against relegation. Despite their drop to the Championship, he stayed on and guided Newcastle back to the Premier League in 2017. His ability to achieve results with limited resources earned him respect from Newcastle fans.

He left after the expiry of his contract in 2019, and took up a lucrative managerial position in China, with Dalian Professional. His representatives nevertheless put him forward to succeed Marco Silva as Everton manager in December 2019, but the Everton board opted for Ancelotti instead.

However, nineteen months later, on 30 June 2021, Benítez’s time came.

For many Everton fans, his appointment was unacceptable due to his Liverpool ties and the lingering memory of the ‘small club’ comment. Protests erupted, with banners displayed at Goodison Park and near his Wirral home. One banner read, ‘We know where you live,’ underscoring the hostility – albeit that it was left outside a neighbour’s house.

Benítez arguably had more to lose from the appointment than Everton, for which he was their sixth manager in barely five years. He inherited an unbalanced and vastly underperforming squad which had repeatedly shown a lack of motivation and on pitch leadership. Through its lavish spending the club had repeatedly tested the limits of financial fair play rules and it left him with little leeway in the transfer market. Moreover he had no goodwill to fall back on: if Everton didn’t start 2021/22 well, the returning Goodison crowd would turn on him.

His appointment also revealed a deeper truth about Everton in 2021. Five years and £500 million into Moshiri’s ownership, the club were in a worse on-pitch situation than when he took over. 26 years without a trophy and success seemed as far away as ever. The churn of managers – usually as a result of Moshiri appointing the wrong man in the first place –bred the recruitment mess. The opinions of a highly regarded Director of Football in Marcel Brands seemed to be disregarded as readily as supporter opinion.

Brands was against Benitez’s appointment and would be a fall guy in this incendiary period. Others too fell foul of the new manager. James Rodriguez, Ancelotti’s marque signing, had been almost totally overlooked when the pair were at Real Madrid together. He was sold without playing a single minute under the new manager.  

Despite the unease that preceded the season and a clear lack of optimism, Everton began the 2021/22 campaign positively, winning four of their first six Premier League matches. However, injuries to key players, including Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Abdoulaye Doucouré, soon exposed the squad’s lack of depth. Benítez’s conservative tactical approach drew criticism as Everton struggled to maintain their early momentum. A 5-2 home defeat to Watford – a game Everton had led until the 78^th minute – epitomised how poorly drilled his team were.

By December 2021, Everton had won just one of their previous 13 matches across all competitions. Fans directed their frustration not only at Benítez but also at the club’s leadership.

As results worsened, Benítez’s relationship with the club’s hierarchy grew strained. He clashed with Brands over transfer strategies, and when Brands left, Benítez assumed more control. However, the January transfer window, in which the highly rated Lucas Digne was sold and replaced by Nathan Patterson and Vitaly Mykolenko, did little to improve the team’s fortunes. Nor were they given the chance to do so.

The breaking point came on 15 January, 2022, when Everton suffered a humiliating 2-1 defeat to Norwich City, a team also battling relegation. The following day, Benítez was sacked, bringing an end to an unsavoury passage in Goodison history.

“In personal terms, Everton was quite difficult for me,” he reflected in a self-serving interview with The Athletic three months after his sacking. “But as a professional, I was fully concentrated and focused and always trying to do my best. That’s the main thing. I knew it was impossible to change the situation, so you have to deal with it.”

Factfile

Born: Madrid, 16 April 1960

Other clubs

As a player: Real Madrid Castilla (1979-81), Parla (1981-85).

As manager: Real Madrid Castilla (1994-95), Valladolid (1995-96), Osasuna (1996), Extremadura (1997-99), Tenerife (2000-01), Valencia (2001-04), Liverpool (2004-10), Inter Milan (2010), Chelsea (2012-13), Napoli (2013-15), Real Madrid (2015-16), Newcastle United (2016-19), Dalian Professional (2019-21), Celta Vigo (2023-24)