{"id":121871,"date":"2015-06-04T06:15:04","date_gmt":"2015-06-04T06:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=121871"},"modified":"2015-06-03T19:13:11","modified_gmt":"2015-06-03T19:13:11","slug":"new-real-madrid-boss-rafa-benitez-admires-liverpools-sterling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=121871","title":{"rendered":"New Real Madrid boss Rafa Benitez ‘admires’ Liverpool’s Sterling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rafael Benitez said he “admires” Liverpool forward Raheem Sterling at the news conference to confirm his appointment as Real Madrid manager.<\/p>\n

The ex-Liverpool manager has ended a two-year stint with Napoli, signing a three-year contract at the Bernabeu with the promise of “quality football” which “wins trophies”.<\/p>\n

When asked about 20-year-old England international Sterling, Benitez said: “We admire Raheem, that’s no secret – but he is not one of our players so I can’t really comment on him.”<\/p>\n

Sterling, who rejected a new \u00a3100,000-a-week contract in April, wants to leave Anfield and has also been linked with a move to Manchester City.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

So, does that mean big-name players could be leaving Real?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not necessarily – despite world-record signing Gareth Bale, 25, being linked with a move back to the Premier League.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Madrid-born Benitez, who said he is “emotional to be back home”, says he wants to “enjoy” his “great squad” and would not be drawn on contract negotiations.<\/p>\n

He also batted away a question about the club signing Manchester United’s 24-year-old Spanish goalkeeper David De Gea, <\/strong>who could leave Old Trafford this summer.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“I like the way you have tried to sneak that question under the radar but we will evaluate everything in time,” said Benitez. “We will not name names today.”<\/p>\n

Rafa’s happy to be back, though?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes. Very much so.<\/p>\n

He has taken all of his backroom team with him as he tries to dethrone Barcelona as La Liga champions and improve on last season’s Champions League semi-final exit.<\/p>\n

He plans to build “an attacking team”, built on the foundations of training sessions which are split 80-20 in favour of ball-work to other physical training.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Are Real happy to have him?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Again, in the affirmative.<\/p>\n

The 55-year-old, who replaces La Decima-wining coach Carlo Ancelotti, was described as “a methodical tactician, tireless worker and footballing scholar” on the official Real website.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The article added: “Benitez is one of the greatest coaches on the global stage.”<\/p>\n

Real president Florentino Perez added that Benitez is “a man who breathes football, professionalism and the very ethos of our club”.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Benitez’s honours<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
1 x Champions League (2005 with Liverpool)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1 x Club World Cup (2010 with Inter)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1 x European Super Cup (2005 with Liverpool)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2 x Europa League (2004 with Valencia and 2013 with Chelsea)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2 x La Liga (2002 and 2004 with Valencia)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1 x FA Cup (2006 with Liverpool)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1 x Coppa Italia (2014 with Napoli)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2 x Italian Super Cups (2010 with Inter and 2014 with Napoli)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1 FA Community Shield (2006 with Liverpool)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC Sport<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rafael Benitez said he “admires” Liverpool forward Raheem Sterling at the news conference to confirm his appointment as Real Madrid manager. The ex-Liverpool manager has ended a two-year stint with Napoli, signing a three-year contract at the Bernabeu with the promise of “quality football” which “wins trophies”. When asked about 20-year-old England international Sterling, Benitez […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":121872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29,3],"class_list":["post-121871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dr-mahamudu-bawumia","tag-ghana-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/121872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}