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Rafa's Way: The Resurrection of Newcastle United
The noise grew. Everywhere you looked Newcastle fans were on their feet, United, at last, in song. St James’ Park was rocking, a noise that carried down from the cathedral at the top of the hill, down through the city. It felt like a celebration. It wasn’t. Newcastle – facing Tottenham Hotspur on the last day of the 2015/16 Premier League season – had already been relegated.
The fervent atmosphere was instead a final call of support for the manager, Rafa Benitez. It was only his tenth game in charge – not enough time for him to steer Newcastle clear of relegation – yet the St James’ crowd were imploring him to stay. The Spaniard had fallen into the hearts of the people of Tyneside. Spurs – second in the league before kick-off – were beaten 5-1. A club was stirring back to life.
The job at hand though, was galvanise and resurrect a club and its football obsessed city. He had to strip away years of neglect, breathe life into flawed structures, clear dressing rooms, rebuild belief, attempt to give the people of Newcastle their pride back.
Rafa’s Way tells the story of the remarkable Championship campaign that followed, the turnaround in the fortunes of Newcastle United and the dramatic promotion. It charts Benitez’s overhaul of everything within a troubled club, his impact on its city, and how he immersed himself in a community that persuaded him to stay, and could not bear to see him leave.
Rafa’s Way talks in-depth to Benitez, about his beliefs and the challenge he faced, to the players, the key men in black and white stripes who made Newcastle United champions, and delves into the very heart of a football club as it emerged from the ashes.
The fervent atmosphere was instead a final call of support for the manager, Rafa Benitez. It was only his tenth game in charge – not enough time for him to steer Newcastle clear of relegation – yet the St James’ crowd were imploring him to stay. The Spaniard had fallen into the hearts of the people of Tyneside. Spurs – second in the league before kick-off – were beaten 5-1. A club was stirring back to life.
The job at hand though, was galvanise and resurrect a club and its football obsessed city. He had to strip away years of neglect, breathe life into flawed structures, clear dressing rooms, rebuild belief, attempt to give the people of Newcastle their pride back.
Rafa’s Way tells the story of the remarkable Championship campaign that followed, the turnaround in the fortunes of Newcastle United and the dramatic promotion. It charts Benitez’s overhaul of everything within a troubled club, his impact on its city, and how he immersed himself in a community that persuaded him to stay, and could not bear to see him leave.
Rafa’s Way talks in-depth to Benitez, about his beliefs and the challenge he faced, to the players, the key men in black and white stripes who made Newcastle United champions, and delves into the very heart of a football club as it emerged from the ashes.
- GenresFootball
320 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 4, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 10, 2017
If you are a Newcastle United fan you will have lived through several surges of emotion, happy and de spirited as you followed the fortunes of the Magpies over the decades. This book is for those who need to be reminded that the club, with its millionaire owner and bank balance focussed existence is made up of real people.
One success of the book is that Rafael Benitez gave the author access to the club's staff and players to such an extent that we hear different people's stories as we go along. But the biggest surprise is the amount of time Rafa gave of himself, in what must be a landmark in his fabulous career.
The words used all seem to be those of the personalities interviewed. We hear Rafa's Hispanic intonation in the way he puts his sentences together, at times a bit unusually. Some of the text is so obviously someone's speech that at times you have to reread a phrase to get the sense behind it. But that's a good thing in this case. It is a book of people's feelings about a club and its recent history that matters to them.
The question is begged, what would have happened if the campaign had not been a success? Or more likely had turned out into another one of great hopes and dreams being let down by the cold dawn of reality in England's most northerly league club?
A book that you need a reason to read maybe. As biographies go it may not be a great one, and arguably is not meant to be. It is written by a journalist and tells it like it is, at least from one standpoint. But it pretends no more, and all the better for it!
It may lack the passion of the broken dreams of the Keegan era, and may not tell much more than be the temporary resurrection of a club on a slow downward spiral climbing back up a rung of the ladder of success and respectability, but it is still worth a read if you love the club and are crying out for a return to the good times you once remember if not lived.
I enjoyed it.
One success of the book is that Rafael Benitez gave the author access to the club's staff and players to such an extent that we hear different people's stories as we go along. But the biggest surprise is the amount of time Rafa gave of himself, in what must be a landmark in his fabulous career.
The words used all seem to be those of the personalities interviewed. We hear Rafa's Hispanic intonation in the way he puts his sentences together, at times a bit unusually. Some of the text is so obviously someone's speech that at times you have to reread a phrase to get the sense behind it. But that's a good thing in this case. It is a book of people's feelings about a club and its recent history that matters to them.
The question is begged, what would have happened if the campaign had not been a success? Or more likely had turned out into another one of great hopes and dreams being let down by the cold dawn of reality in England's most northerly league club?
A book that you need a reason to read maybe. As biographies go it may not be a great one, and arguably is not meant to be. It is written by a journalist and tells it like it is, at least from one standpoint. But it pretends no more, and all the better for it!
It may lack the passion of the broken dreams of the Keegan era, and may not tell much more than be the temporary resurrection of a club on a slow downward spiral climbing back up a rung of the ladder of success and respectability, but it is still worth a read if you love the club and are crying out for a return to the good times you once remember if not lived.
I enjoyed it.
May 24, 2020
Hardy’s third book on Newcastle United covers the meticulous nature of Rafa Benitez, and how, despite a dreadful owner, he reconnected the club to its fan base, as he plotted Newcastle’s instant promotion back to the Premier League.
July 27, 2017
Rafa's way
I don't usually read football books but was tempted by the subject glad I did . absolutely brilliant read it in three days will read more from the author
I don't usually read football books but was tempted by the subject glad I did . absolutely brilliant read it in three days will read more from the author
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews