Arbeloa v Alonso: Benitez on his former players turned managers

When former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez is asked whether he had expected his then-players Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa to become managers, his response is brutally honest.

"Alonso, yes. Arbeloa, not really," he says. "For me, Arbeloa was a surprise."

Almost 20 years after Benitez brought them together at Anfield, the pair will go head-to-head as Arbeloa's Fulham host Alonso's Chelsea on Monday.

The pair won the 2010 World Cup and two European Championships with Spain, along with domestic league and cup triumphs when they both joined Real Madrid after Liverpool.

They played together for seven years at club level and shared the pitch 262 times for club and country, and their careers have remained closely intertwined since.

Arbeloa was promoted from Real Madrid B to replace Alonso when he was sacked by the Spanish giants in January last season.

"He was in Castilla [Real Madrid's academy], which was similar to how I started, and then he went to Madrid in special circumstances," Benitez said of Arbeloa's rise to Real manager.

They both returned to England in July to take up their first Premier League managerial roles and now lead clubs whose stadiums are only two miles apart.

"With Alvaro, he knows the Premier League," Benitez told BBC Sport. "But his experience is shorter than Xabi's. We need to know how he can cope outside Real Madrid, which protects you in a way. Outside, you are on your own."

It's no surprise that, having played as team-mates – including under Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid, and Vicente del Bosque with Spain – socialised off the pitch and even gone on holiday together, the pair are, in the words of Arbeloa, "very good friends", despite being "rivals when the game starts". He explained they spoke to each other in the lead up to Monday's match, but not about football.

Other similarities will see the duo live close to each other in Cobham, Surrey, with their children attending the same school.

In the words of Arbeloa, their friendship "will never change".

Alonso was one of Benitez's first Liverpool signings in 2004 as he looked to overhaul Gerard Houllier's squad, Arbeloa then joining in 2007 from Deportivo after rising through the ranks at Real Madrid.

Benitez explained that Alonso has experience of "coaching at a different level in a different country", having had success in the Bundesliga at Bayer Leverkusen by winning a league and cup double in 2024.

Alonso, in particular, had "vision" on the pitch, says Benitez, while his experiences playing at Liverpool, Real Madrid and then under Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich would have "opened his mind" to a range of coaching approaches.

Benitez recalls a moment of magic from Alonso in a 2009 game that displayed his football intelligence.

In a match against Sam Allardyce's Blackburn at Anfield, Alonso ignored an instruction to deliver a free-kick to the far post. Instead, his ball to the near post allowed Fernando Torres to head in his second goal of the match as Liverpool went on to win 4-0.

"He was someone who was always thinking," said Benitez.

It is not just Alonso and Arbeloa who are among Benitez's former Liverpool players to have moved into management.

He reels off more than 20 names who have become coaches or managers, a list including Wales boss Craig Bellamy. He also points out that Djimi Traore is now an assistant coach at Seattle Sounders.

"I sent him to the shower at half-time in the Champions League final [in 2005]," he recalled of the defender, who was expecting to be substituted after a poor first-half before an injury to Steve Finnan saw him reinstated for Liverpool's historic second-half comeback and eventual victory on penalties against AC Milan in 2005.

He added: "They always take something from you. Maybe two or three things they can use [as a coach], and I'm happy with that."

It has been more than 40 years since Benitez began coaching at Real Madrid and, this summer, he finds himself in the unusual position of being without a job.

Now 66, Benitez says he is "waiting for another challenge", adding that his passion for the game is undiminished, as is his desire to "improve teams and players".

He felt he delivered in his most recent role at Panathinaikos, securing the top-four finish he had been tasked with achieving when he took the job in October, but was still sacked in May.

Explaining his continued motivation, Benitez said: "I was a PE teacher before and was trying to improve young people. It was the same as when I had Anthony Gordon at Everton."

The former Newcastle and Chelsea manager remains a Uefa technical observer and speaks about adapting to the modern game, using social media, artificial intelligence and increasingly sophisticated data as part of his approach.

"I had some offers," Benitez said, having recently been linked with the Scotland job.

"Maybe it is a national team, as a lot of teams will change after the World Cup, but there has to be something where you feel you can achieve something, whether that is promotion, like we had at Newcastle, with amazing fans.

"I know football now is more demanding. You have to be patient because, if not, if you change with the pressure of social media and change every seven months, then you don't have any project. That is the difficult thing."