A Season on the Brink: Rafael Benítez, Liverpool and the Path to European Glory

Biographical Portrait of Liverpool's Spanish football manager Rafael Benitez and an extraordinary season for the club.

When Rafael Benitez was appointed manager of under-achieving Liverpool at the start of the 2004-2005 season, the reaction of many fans was 'Who the **** is Rafael Benitez?'. The Liverpool fans had grown used to French manager Gerard Houllier but he had been a fan of the club himself since his days as a teacher on Merseyside. A Spaniard with admittedly a wonderful record at Valencia was going to take over management of Liverpool's famous Boot Room and try and win over a disillusioned Kop.

But in one season, Benitez's importation of Spanish players, coaching methods and diet has led to a revolution, even usurping Jose Mourinho's Chelsea, whereby the team has ended the season winning the ultimate trophy for any European club - the European Champions League. No fan will ever forget the comeback from a 3-0 deficit to a 3-3 scoreline, then dramatic success in the penalty shoot-out.

This is the story of Rafa's remarkable success.

Guillem Balagué is an award-winning football author, journalist and presenter who works regularly for BBC Radio 5 Live, LaLiga TV and the American network CBS. In his previous role at Sky Sports, he was a key fixture of their Spanish football coverage for over twenty years, known for his regular appearances on Sky Sports News,
'Revista de LaLiga', his punditry work and being the go-to man for anything relating to the Spanish transfer market. He has his own YouTube channel, 1.2m+ followers on social media, his own podcast (Pure Football) and gives Master Classes in journalism at UCFB University in Wembley (London) and the Etihad stadium in Manchester.

He wrote the bestselling A Season on the Brink, an insider's account of Liverpool's 2004-05 Champions' League winning campaign. In November 2012, he published the first international biography of Pep Guardiola, based on conversations with him, shortlisted for Football Book of the Year, as were his following four books. The following year, he published Messi: The Definitive Biography, the first complete biography of the Argentinian star. As well as two ebooks (diaries of the 2012 European Championships and the 2014 World Cup), he published the Official History of FC Barcelona in the autumn of 2014. In November 2015, he wrote Cristiano Ronaldo: the Biography which won the Football Book of the Year Award at the British Sports Book Awards and the Best Football Book of 2016 in Poland. His latest books Brave New World - Inside Pochettino's Spurs and Maradona were Sunday Times bestsellers in the UK. He is also chairman of non-league Biggleswade FC.

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