The official announcement came at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the Spanish capital, Real Madrid confirming on the club’s Twitter account what the world already knew: Rafa Benitez had been appointed as Real Madrid manager. 

Accompanying the official communication was an elaborate image of Benitez, one depicting both his path to the Santiago Bernabeu and the essence of his management. It was a kind of trumpeting of his credentials, Benitez’s high-profile stops—Valencia, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Chelsea, Napoli—listed alongside his accumulated silverware. And laid over the Madrilenian‘s head (the part where the brain is) were tactical diagrams, the intended message clear: Real Madrid had signed the footballing genius it wanted. 

Except, that’s not really the case at all. Benitez, who joined Real Madrid as a 13-year-old, returns after a pair of underwhelming stints in Serie A and a short, turbulent time in west London. In a poll of Real Madrid fans conducted by Marca, only 8.9 percent of respondents wanted the Spaniard hired.

What’s more, Benitez returns to a club that doesn’t really know what it wants. Enduring its leanest run in the Primera Division since pre-Alfredo Di Stefano, Real Madrid has gone through 11 managers in 12 years and has just sacked Carlo Ancelotti—the man who delivered the club its 10th European Cup only 375 days ago. When, at the announcement of Ancelotti‘s sacking, president Florentino Perez was asked what the Italian had done wrong, his response, per AS editor Alfredo Relano, was alarming: “I don’t know,” said Perez. 

Benitez’s appointment, therefore, is one of necessity rather than desire; more the only choice than the obvious choice. Zinedine Zidane had been deemed not yet ready; Joachim Low was unavailable; Jurgen Klopp had opted for a break. Among other candidates, Michel, Unai Emery and Julen Lopetegui (Michel and Emery finished second and third respectively behind Klopp in Marca‘s poll) appear to have been deemed too risky.

So Benitez it is, the former Castilla manager and onetime assistant of Vicente del Bosque returning to a typically tempestuous Bernabeu that’s unsure if it wants him but has him anyway. You might call it a forced second marriage. 

As such, Benitez, amid the cynical reaction to his appointment, faces countless challenges he must negotiate in a hurry. Winning over the Bernabeu won’t be easy, as a long list of managers have discovered before him. But the magnitude of the task and the obstacles present—and the fact that coaches are almost expected to fail in Chamartin—also create a tantalising opportunity for a man who identifies with Real Madrid. He can alter the entire narrative of his managerial career by doing just one thing: winning. 

To do so, the 55-year-old will first have to earn the trust of a squad dripping with talent but one that won’t be easily won over. Real Madrid’s players were fiercely loyal to Ancelotti, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Sergio Ramos, James Rodriguez, Toni Kroos and Marcelo among those to have expressed their fondness of the endearing Italian since the season’s conclusion. 

Earlier this season, Ramos also highlighted a major barrier managers like Benitez must overcome. When defending Ancelotti and firing back at Jose Mourinho, Ramos, as noted by ESPN FC‘s Rob Train, remarked that Ancelotti “had played at the highest level.” The suggestion wasn’t hard to grasp: those who haven’t don’t get it. 

Benitez, in his day, played. But it was for Real Madrid Castilla, Parla and Linares—hardly European royalty.  

For the Madrilenian, therefore, getting on side with his new players will mean convincing them of his methods. An almost religious tactician and a man obsessed with the fine details of systematic organisation, Benitez is at the other end of the managerial spectrum to his predecessor. He’ll need his ideas to quickly gain traction within the squad; convince Real’s stars that game-to-game adjustments are necessary; convince them opponent-specific tactics are the way forward; spread the idea that formational balance must be achieved at all costs. 

Essentially, Benitez needs to convince Real Madrid that the difference between lifting the league trophy and watching it lifted in Catalonia lies in the details he fusses over. 

And then there’s the president.

Perez, a construction magnate who initiated and continues to utilise the maligned Galactico policy, is one of the most difficult club administrators for a manager to work with in Europe. In the last nine years of Perez’s two-part reign, Real have lifted one league title, his impulsive, intrusive and shortsighted methods depriving the Bernabeu of a sense of footballing continuity that has underpinned Barcelona’s simultaneous success. 

“Whereas the Catalans still just use business principles to fortify a football philosophy, Real Madrid use football to further a business philosophy,” wrote notable journalist Miguel Delaney after the Blaugrana captured a fifth league title in seven seasons last month. 

Now Benitez is the latest man who must find a way to make it work with Perez, to steer a team to success while not necessarily steering the club. From Ancelotti, he inherits a squad that doesn’t need a lot of work, but the president will likely perform work on it anyway. 

Benitez might get the sort of mix he wants; he might not. Regardless, he’ll have to win anyway. Quickly.

Doubts persist as to whether can. But there’ll be an added significance to any triumph if he does. “Today is an emotional day, coming back here, to my home,” Benitez said with a tear in his eye when presented at the Bernabeu on Wednesday, per Marca. Earlier, Perez had described the new manager as “Real Madrid through and through,” citing the Madrilenian‘s arrival as the beginning of “a new era.”

Benitez’s immense challenge is to start it in style. 

 

Follow @TimDCollins

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