Former England international Glen Johnson says his former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez was ‘the worst man-manager’ he ever played under in his career.
Johnson had the good fortune of playing under some of the best managers in the English game over the course of his 16-year career.
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He played under Jose Mourinho at Chelsea, Harry Redknapp at Portsmouth and under Benitez, Roy Hodgson, Kenny Dalglish and Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool, as well as Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello (and later Hodgson, again) for England.
The former right-back told talkSPORT: “The best man-manager I played under was definitely Harry Redknapp.
“He was like one of the lads, I had him texting me his comments about horses when I’ve been at the racing – he’d liked to see the boys enjoy themselves.
“But the worst? Hmm… I’d probably say Benitez, but it’s a difficult one, because he was good and the worst at the same time.
“He never tries to be your friend, that’s what I mean by saying he’s probably the worst man-manager, but he does it in a clever way.
“Whereas Harry would be your mate and get the best out of you that way, Benitez would get the best out of you by not being your friend.
It’s also why I loved him. He used to go to work, he knew how to deal with certain people but he didn’t do it in a friendly way with an arm around you.
“He would bring Torres off at the end of a game and everyone would be saying to Fernando, ‘well done for scoring a hat-trick’, and Benitez would walk past and say, ‘yeah but you should have scored four’.
“He’d just shut him down and say: ‘Don’t be pleased with three’
“He would get the best out of you by knowing what to say and when to say it, as opposed to having a joke with you.
“It’s not a negative about Benitez, I loved Benitez, he just does things in a different way.”
