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Rafa’s promotion past
- Updated: November 30, 2016
While some doubted Rafa Benitez’s suitability to life in the second tier with Newcastle, it was his work at Extremadura in Spain that set him on the path to glory. Adam Bate speaks to Igor Gluscevic, the man whose goals fired Benitez’s Extremadura to promotion in 1998, to find out how a Champions League winning coach learnt to cope down the divisions…
When Rafa Benitez took the job at Extremadura, his prospects weren’t great. Sacked by Real Valladolid with the team bottom of La Liga having won only two games in 23, his subsequent posting at Osasuna had been no better – he departed with only one win in nine attempts.
Benitez’s apprenticeship at Real Madrid still offered enough of a cachet to earn him another opportunity, but Extremadura were acting out of desperation rather than expectation when turning to the 37-year-old coach. Their first top-flight season had just ended in relegation.
Few anticipated they would be returning soon but Benitez took them back up. The skills he learnt that year helped him repeat the feat with Tenerife in 2001, which led to the Valencia job where he won La Liga twice before lifting the Champions League trophy with Liverpool.
But such thoughts were mere fantasy for Benitez when he turned up in the small town of Almendralejo. Back then it was not Fernando Torres, Gonzalo Higuain or Cristiano Ronaldo he was relying on to score the goals but Montenegrin forward Igor Gluscevic.
Having been signed from Vojvodina Novi Sad to help Extremadura in their inaugural La Liga campaign, Gluscevic had scored only twice. But the powerful striker was the least of Benitez’s worries as he set about rebuilding the side – and their shattered confidence.
“It was a team that had gone down and we had a lot of problems to deal with as well,” Gluscevic tells Sky Sports. “Not much was expected because the team wasn’t very strong. Some important players had left and here was a young coach with a lot of work to do.”
But hard work is what Benitez enjoys. Meticulous detail and precision planning are features of his coaching to this day. Newcastle fans are now familiar with the incessant note-taking, their players with the tactics work and dossiers. For Gluscevic and the rest, it was all new.
“He was so professional and he sought perfection,” recalls Gluscevic. “He was very smart. We did a …
