Real rule out Rafa

Spanish champions insist Liverpool boss is 'not an alternative'

Last updated: 14th December 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Real rule out Rafa

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Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon claims a move for Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez is 'not an alternative' following the appointment of Juande Ramos.

Benitez, who was born in Madrid and spent time at the Bernabeu earlier in his coaching career, has been persistently linked with the Primera Liga champions.

Real recently parted company with ex-boss Bernd Schuster and immediately replaced the German with former Tottenham boss Ramos on a temporary six-month contract, sparking fresh conjecture that Benitez could be a long-term target.

However, Calderon is eager to offer Ramos the chance to impress and has effectively ruled out approaching Benitez, who is on the verge of signing a new four-year deal at Anfield.

Calderon said: "We want to see what happens with Ramos and at the end of the season, if everything is okay, and I hope so as he is a good coach, we will see what happens in May or June.

Decision

"We had to take this decision very quickly. I had a meeting with Bernd Schuster and he was very disappointed and not excited about keeping his job, so we got in touch with two or three coaches who could come and one of those was Ramos. That is why we did it so quickly.

"Benitez is a very good coach and he was with us as everyone knows. He was training the youth team at Real Madrid. But he is the coach of Liverpool and I am sure he is going to be there for a long time and so he is not an alternative for us.

"We know him very well, he is Spanish and worked with Real Madrid a long time ago. He is a very good coach but I would like to have Juande for longer than six months. So let's hope everything is going to be okay and if it is like that, he will continue with us.

"Ramos won the Carling Cup with Spurs and the Uefa Cup two years in a row with Sevilla. In England, with the problem of the language and different habits, maybe it affected him. But we trust him very much."

Meanwhile, Ramos has refused to accept his side have been left with an insurmountable task to overhaul Barcelona after falling 12 points adrift of their arch rivals following Saturday's El Clasico defeat.

"I believe in football you need to take it game by game," said Ramos. "The difference is considerable but there remains a lot of the league in front of us and also the form of the teams will have a big say."

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