Pako Ayestarán

Paco Ayestarán Barandiarán (born February 5, 1963 in Beasain, Gipuzkoa, Spain) is a long-serving and successful Assistant Manager to football Manager Rafael Benítez at both Liverpool FC and Valencia. He quit at the start of the 2007-08 season following an apparent disagreement,^[1] and was placed on gardening leave until June 30, 2008. He served as physical fitness coach at S.L. Benfica for the 2008-2009 season and returned to Valencia CF for the 2009-2010 season, leaving in the summer for professional reasons.^[2]

Ayestarán was a good friend and highly trusted companion of former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez. Ayestaran worked with Benitez since their time together at CD Tenerife and was instrumental in planning daily training at Melwood, Liverpool's training ground, and organising the physical work and fitness training of the team. He has also won two Spanish La Liga titles alongside Benitez at Valencia.

At Liverpool

Ayestaran felt that "Training is very important, I think that no matter how fit players think they are, the same eleven can't play every game. For me, training is the most important thing. It is our job to make the players understand how important the training is and sometimes players come to me and say that they have played too much and they need a break from playing and train a bit more. When they say this, you realise they really understand the reasons and the benefits of the training."^[3][4]

References