Rafa Benitez is so ingrained in the public imagination as a Liverpool legend — and certainly Everton fans could not erase the memory — that sometimes you have to remind yourself that his heart was with Real Madrid long before he came to Merseyside.
Not that it will spark divided loyalties this weekend when the two giants of European football play the Champions League final on Saturday in Paris. Meeting Benitez last week in West Kirby, where he and his family have lived for almost 20 years and where his thoroughly Liverpudlian daughters have grown up, is to be reminded of where his roots are now.