Rafa Benitez breaks silence on Everton sacking and makes fan hostility admission

Rafa Benitez has admitted he was surprised by the hostility he faced from Everton fans towards the end of his tenure.

The Spaniard was sacked as Toffees boss in January after just six-and-a-half months at the helm.

The axe was wielded on Benitez after a 2-1 loss to Norwich City.

Everton had won just one of their previous 13 Premier League games and sat 15th in the table - six points above the drop zone.

Speaking to Alan Shearer for The Athletic, the ex-Liverpool boss believes that injuries to the likes of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Yerry Mina - the spine of the team - meant resulted jettisoned after an initial bright start.

What’s been said

Benitez said: “People won’t remember it now but in the first months, the team were doing so well. There were comments in the newspapers like: ‘Amazing, fantastic, he’s doing the right things’.

“It was key players through the whole spine of the team.

“That made things more difficult and started the problems with results on the field.

“They fired us when we were six points from relegation and six from 10th, with two games in hand (on some of the sides between them and the top half). All the important players were back.”

“At the end, yes (he was surprised by the hostility).

“I was really pleased with the support at the beginning, but yes, I was surprised because we were giving everything.

“We were working so hard, a lot of hours — I’ve done that at all my clubs — we were honest and my staff were incredibly dedicated. I was surprised also that, when I left, the club got rid of some of them.

“But I cannot control the emotions of other people.

“The only thing I can do is give the message that we were doing our best, we were unlucky with injuries, we didn’t have much support in the transfer window in terms of money — you can see the numbers — and that all the teams around us were all spending more money. It was very difficult to improve without that help.”