Fulham v Chelsea: Rafa Benitez on former players Alonso and Arbeloa as managers
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Arbeloa v Alonso: Benitez on his former players turned managers
Image source: Getty Images
Image caption: Alvaro Arbeloa and Xabi Alonso won three major trophies with Spain together
By Nizaar Kinsella, Football reporter
Published 5 hours ago
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. But his experience is shorter than Xabi's," Benitez told BBC Sport. "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".
"He was someone who was always thinking," Benitez adds about Alonso.