Anthony Le Tallec has hit out at Rafa Benitez and blamed his former Liverpool manager for derailing his career.
Gerard Houllier signed the forward alongside Florent Sinama-Pongolle from Le Havre in 2001, with the highly-rated pair remaining on loan with the French club for two years before officially joining the Reds in the summer of 2003 when still only 18 years old.
The Frenchman would make 23 appearances during his first season at Anfield, scoring just once, before leaving for Saint-Etienne on loan in the summer of 2004 after Benitez had replaced Houllier.
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Le Tallec had asked his new manager if he could leave temporarily, with France Under-21s coach, Raymond Domenech, unimpressed with the attacking duo’s progress during their first season at Anfield.
“It is abnormal for boys of their age to play so rarely. It is a true problem,” he said at the time, as quoted by LFC HIstory. “When I think their coach is a former coach from the national team! He is not allowed to sign them and not play them. It is a mess.”
Benitez granted Le Tallec’s request, and revealed he had tried to sign both him and Pongolle during his time at Valencia.
“We tried to sign Sinama and Le Tallec for Valencia,” he said. “My scout said that he had seen two very good players – but Liverpool paid a lot of money for them so it came to nothing.
“We knew Le Tallec was the best player in the Under-17 World Cup, and Sinama was the top scorer. There’s definitely the potential there – they are both good players. They need to play at this level and then they will get more confidence.”
However, that did not stop Benitez from being unimpressed with Le Tallec for asking to leave.
Recalled by Liverpool in January 2005, the forward admitted at the time that he should have stayed put at Anfield.
“Looking back now it was the wrong decision for me to have made,” he said. “I should have stayed here and fought for my place. I’m young and I just wanted to play. I have taken over the number 13 shirt – hopefully it won’t be unlucky for me!”
But while he would go on to make seven appearances for the Reds during the second half of 2004/05 season, most memorably assisting Luis Garcia’s spectacular strike against Juventus in the Champions League quarter-finals, the 39-year-old has now revealed how asking to leave Liverpool led a breakdown in his relationship with Benitez and believes it proved fatal to his overall career.
“For having asked Rafael Benitez to leave on loan (in July 2004),” he told L’Equipe when asked what his biggest regret in his career was. “I was stupid and he was mad at me.
“I came back from Saint-Etienne in January because there were injuries at Liverpool and, at the end of the season, Benítez said to me: ‘’For me, you are crazy. You were one of the three attackers, now I put you in eighth place.’
“I was young, but he didn’t want to know anything and lent me every year. I blame him. My career could have been different, but that one thing was fatal for me.”
Le Tallec joined St-Etienne at the start of August 2004, just as it was becoming increasingly likely that Michael Owen would be moving on amid interest from Real Madrid. The England international’s exit left Milan Baros and Djibril Cisse as Benitez’s only senior forwards, with youngsters Pongolle and Neil Mellor providing further depth and getting further first team opportunities as a result.
Meanwhile, Benitez had already signed Fernando Morientes from Real Madrid in a £6.3m deal in January 2005 at the time of Le Tallec’s recall, though the Spaniard was cup-tied in the Champions League and Cisse was by this point sidelined with a broken leg.
Le Tallec also shared how he was left in tears after Benitez left him out of the Liverpool squad for the 2005 Champions League final against AC Milan.
“More like not being called up,” he recalled. “In 2005, Benitez didn’t include me in the squad for the Champions League final. It made me cry.
“Harry Kewell came back from injury but was injured again after 20 minutes. I was in the stands during the final, but I didn’t celebrate the title in Istanbul or take part in the parade through Liverpool. I stayed at home, I was too sad.”
Benitez would add Peter Crouch to the Reds’ attacking ranks in a £7m deal from Southampton in the summer of 2005 as Le Tallec fell further down the pecking order.
Prior to the England international’s arrival, the Frenchman would make his final two Liverpool appearances against TNS in the Champions League qualifiers. He’d then be sent on loan to Sunderland for the 2005/06 campaign as they suffered relegation, before enjoying further temporary stints back in France with Sochaux and Le Mans ahead of a permanent Anfield exit to the latter in the summer of 2008 in a £1.1m deal.
Making a total 32 appearances for the Reds, scoring once and assisting twice, the 39-year-old ultimately never lived up to his early potential at Anfield. Hanging up his boots in 2021, the majority of the rest of his career was spent in France in Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 with Auxerre, Valenciennes, Orleans, and Annecy – along with brief stints in Greece and Romania with Atromitos and Astra Giurgiu.
While Le Tallec might point the finger in Benitez’s direction for how things unfolded for him at Anfield and beyond, we’ll never know for sure how different things could have been for the former Liverpool forward had he not asked the Spaniard to let him leave the Reds in the summer of 2004.
Olivia Martin is a dedicated sports journalist based in the UK. With a passion for various athletic disciplines, she covers everything from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis.
