'Alonso was clever. He was the one who learned quickly'

Rafa Benítez on the coaching clamour for his former player at Liverpool, Celta Vigo's struggles and family life

- Rob Draper

Rafa Benítez bounds into the hotel bar with a jaunty smile, a firm handshake and the air of a man wholly at ease with the world. The sun is shining on the Galician coast, the bar overlooks the idyllic Ría de Vigo estuary, all rocky coves and hidden beaches. He insists you try the local octopus delicacy.

This is what life looks like for a 63-year-old itinerant super-coach who is one game from the sack, according to the local paper that morning. Benítez’s Celta Vigo play bottom-of-the-table Almería tonight. It’s a must-win game, the paper says.

It would take too long to give full justice to Celta Vigo’s travails this season, though special mentions for being 2-0 up at Barcelona with nine minutes to play but losing 3-2; and the last-minute penalty that denied them against Sevilla, a decision so egregious it caused their star player, Iago Aspas, to seize the ref’s pitch-side TV monitor and smash it to the ground. (Who hasn’t wanted to do that?)

Suffice to say, in their centenary year, with Benítez hired to rebuild a romantic club – Europa League semi-finalists in 2017 yet relegation strugglers of late – they are fourth bottom. Last weekend they were winning 2- 0 at third-bottom Cádiz but conceded an equaliser in the 10th minute of stoppage time, a microcosm of their season.

Benítez sighs and smiles as he draws attention to the reports predicting his demise. There comes a point in a coaching career when you really have seen it all. Vigo is an industrial port and Spain’s fishing fleet sets sail from here out into the Atlantic. Like an experienced sea captain who has navigated this tempestuous stretch of ocean a thousand times, Benítez seems relaxed about these local squalls.