rafael benitez manager
Rafa Benitez has further opened up on James Rodriguez’s transfer away from the club and explained why Everton “needed” the move to go through. The playmaker confirmed his exit from Merseyside earlier this week, just over a year following his arrival at Goodison Park, by joining Qatar-based Al-Rayyan. The Colombia international had proven influential on occasions last season, but struggled with injuries in other spells – and had not made an appearance across 2021/22. Speculation has been rife on social media regarding the reasons behind the move with some wondering what the real driving force behind the decision was. And, while Benitez was coy over the specifics, he explained that the transfer was right for all parties in the end.
Rafa Benitez said: “We could be talking about that for weeks if you want. The reality is that the player now is happy, because he has an option that he is pleased with. I said before, we have to maximise our resources. Considering all the injury record and all that we need for the team, I think it was important for us to change and then to move forward. Hopefully we can use this money to bring in another kind of player that maybe will be fine for us, and then we can fill the gaps that we have. And that’s it. If he’s happy and can score goals there, he can play well, it will be very good. For us, it’s something that we needed to do to be sure we could move forward.”
The exit of Rodriguez could open up some funds for Everton to spend in the January transfer window. The club was limited in the amount of transfer activity it could conduct in the summer because of financial fair play regulations, but getting the Colombian’s significant wages off the books could change things this winter. And Benitez is happy that Farhad Moshiri is still willing to spend money with the Blues after significant investment on and off the pitch since his arrival.
Rafa Benitez added: “We are lucky enough to have an owner that wants to spend money so that is great. After my last experience in the Premier League, not spending any money! I think it’s really good to have owners with this experience. Now it’s just to be sure that, when the new transfer window arrives, we are ready. We know what we need, we just have to be capable to do it. We will do it, I have confidence we will do it. Now is a time to maximise resources, trying to win these two games and going into the international break to recover some players. We have plenty of time to prepare for the transfer window.”
The exit of Rodriguez further limits the options available to Benitez after an injury crisis over recent weeks. However, the manager is confident in his squad – especially when key players such as Richarlison, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Seamus Coleman can return to full fitness.
Rafa Benitez concluded: “I would say that we have been really unlucky this month. Everything we were doing in the first games was right. After we lost two or three important players, you have to demand even more from the others, and we’ve had a couple of games that maybe we could do better. I still think we’re in a very good position and have to be optimistic because the team will improve, the structure is fine and the club is well organised. We have to make the right decisions at the right time and we have great potential, that is very clear. The owners want to spend, so everything is positive. You sometimes go to a club and it’s not working and nobody wants to improve, here you have the owners pushing to make sure we are getting better. We have a lot of people inside doing the same, so we have to be sure we can improve a little bit more. If we have the strikers available, if we have some of the players who aren’t fit available, we have to be sure we have someone to back-up, to cover. Now, for the short-term, we have these issues and ok we have to wait a little bit.”
