By Brian Sears  18 March 2016 St James’ Park hosts a north-east derby of particular significance this weekend as the outcome will swing the relegation scrap. Newcastle and Sunderland are both in the bottom four, respectively nine and eight points adrift of Swansea heading into the weekend. If Rafa Benitez can guide his charges to victory then they and […]

By Pete Wilson 8 June 2010 Rafa Benitez is the new manager of Internazionale, and his appointment will officially be confirmed tomorrow. The Spaniard has been out of work for less than a week and his move comes as no surprise; he was considering the post even before Liverpool’s hierarchy forced him out. The Inter […]

By Nick Harris 4 June 2010 As Liverpool’s search for a new manager begins in earnest, and umpteen re-evaluations of Rafa Benitez’s time at Anfield are underway, sportingintelligence’s resident statistician Brian Sears has crunched a few numbers to illustrate why, statistically, the Spaniard was Liverpool’s best manager of the Premier League era. The table below […]

By Nick Harris 2 June 2010 The Rafael Benitez era at Liverpool is over after he was offered £3m to walk away and was told his position was untenable. A large number of the club’s fans will be appalled by the effective ultimatum that Benitez was given, but sources have told sportingintelligence this evening: Benitez […]

By Pete Wilson 1 June 2010 The European managerial merry-go-round cranked into a higher gear this morning as Internazionale prepared themselves for a formal rejection of their overtures to England’s manager Fabio Capello. The Inter president, Massimo Moratti, has made it clear in recent days that he wanted to talk to Capello about succeeding Jose Mourinho. […]

By Pete Wilson 26 May 2010 Rafael Benitez has been installed as the 7-2 bookmakers’ favourite to be the next Premier League manager to leave his job, in a market priced by William Hill as “the sack race”. “There is already speculation about the long-term future of a number of Prem bosses, but we think […]

By Nick Harris 12 May 2010 As the Spirit of Shankly group of Liverpool fans confirmed today that they will meet with Premier League officials on Friday to discuss ownership and governance issues at their club, sportingintelligence can reveal the historic rift between Tom Hicks and George Gillett was fueled by their contrasting views on […]

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By Brian Sears 28 February 2013 So Rafa Benitez isn’t feeling the love from the Chelsea fans, who have made plain their disdain for their Spanish manager. He doesn’t like being interim, or at least hates being called ‘interim’, and the animus aimed at him is damaging Chelsea’s chances of a top-four finish. So he […]