RAFAEL BENITEZ is at Liverpool for the long haul and is far more suited to his role as Anfield supremo than he ever would be as coach of Real Madrid, reckons Paco Lloret.

Lloret, an experienced Valencia-based sports journalist who hosts a popular weekly sports programme on Spanish television, has spent more than a year compiling the authorised biography Rafa Benitez.

The new English-language version, updated from the Spanish original to include Liverpool's Champions League triumph, was launched at Anfield on September 29. And Lloret, who is a long-time friend of the Liverpool manager, revealed that Benitez believes his "Rafalution" at the club has only just begun.

Lloret said: "Rafa was born in Madrid and started his playing career at Real so it's only natural I suppose that he will be linked to the coach's job at the Bernabeu whenever the current incumbent is under pressure.

"But it's precisely that kind of way of running a club that ensures that the Real job is not for Rafa. Here at Liverpool it is very different.

"Whereas Madrid tend to change their coaches regularly, Rafa wants to be at Liverpool for a long time and build a great team.

"At Real there are many big super-stars and lots of issues.

"One day the players might have to miss training because they're shooting a commercial somewhere else in Europe and while there a lots of people with opinions there, they're not necessarily thinking from a team point of view.

"It is very different at Liverpool where Rafa believes he will be given time."

The stability Benitez craves comes as no surprise when examining his early career as the young coach often endured a nomadic existence.

Lloret said: "When Rafa first started, he never ended a season and would resign. But even then, people who knew him realised that he had something special as a coach.

"A mutual friend of Rafa and myself who is also a sports journalist introduced us and he would tell me from the beginning that here was a coach who was going to be number one.