Former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez was ordered to concentrate on coaching and training his team after attempting to sign one AC Milan player
It was one of the most infamous press conferences in Liverpool history. Rafa Benitez, sitting down to preview a routine Premier League match against Newcastle in November 2007, would answer almost every question with the same line “I am focused on training and coaching my team”, leaving the assembled press shocked and confused, and his Anfield bosses furious.
Benitez’s press conference was one of the first signs of the cracks growing behind the scenes at Liverpool before a fully-fledged civil war involving the manager and owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett.
And it was actually an AC Milan player who indirectly caused a chaos so bad that bookmakers would end up slashing the odds on Benitez to be sacked by the angry Liverpool owners on the other side of the Atlantic.
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Kakha Kaladze made 284 appearances for the Italian giants during a 10-year spell after joining from Dynamo Kiev in 2000, winning one Serie A, one Coppa Italia and two Champions Leagues. The second of those European Cups came at the expense of Benitez’s Liverpool in Athens in 2007.
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But just months later the Spaniard would be trying to recruit Kaladze as cover to defenders Jamie Carragher, Sami Hyypia and Daniel Agger. And that’s when all hell broke loose.
Benitez, who had demanded that Hicks and Gillett back him in the aftermath of that defeat in Athens, had spent almost £50million recruiting the likes of Fernando Torres and Ryan Babel that summer, but returned with a request to move quickly to sign Kaladze as cover as his side looked to compete on a number of fronts.
He was told to “quit talking” by a bullish Hicks, who, along with his co-owner, insisted that Benitez instead concentrate on the upcoming games and that transfers would have to wait until a later meeting in December, by which time any chance to sign Kaladze would be gone.
The exchange led to the very public outburst and a press conference anyone following Liverpool at that time will never forget.
Hicks later explained: “After the Champions League final in Athens, Rafa made certain demands of us and we responded to those demands in the summer. We brought in some good players and spent more money than has ever been spent before at this club. We now have some crucial games coming up in the Premier League and the Champions League and we want to see if we can win these games with the players we have.
“This was the message we gave to Rafa recently and I think during the international break he must have grown a bit frustrated about this. We told him to concentrate on the games coming up and nothing else and I guess he didn’t like that.
“But, for the time being, we just need to be focused on what happens on the pitch. George and I will be over in mid-December and that is the time to talk about other issues.
“It is really time for Rafa to quit talking about new players and to coach the players we have.”
The civil war would continue at Anfield for some time, with Hicks later sounding out Jurgen Klinsmann to replace Benitez in the Anfield dugout, only for Liverpool supporters to successfully campaign to keep their manager at the club.
Kaladze, meanwhile, continued at Milan for three more years, unaware of the chaos caused by Benitez’s brief dalliance with his potential signing. The imminent Champions League meeting between the clubs is a reminder of one of the more bizarre moments in Liverpool’s recent history.
