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Benitez: Set for Lee partnership

Liverpool have made great progress over the last few years. Hopefully we can keep improving and get to where we all want.

Sammy Lee
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Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez has admitted his delight at appointing Sammy Lee as his new assistant manager.

Lee, a Liverpool midfielder in his playing days, has previously has spells as reserve team manager and first-team coach under former bosses Graeme Souness and Gerard Houllier.

And Benitez, who has been without an official assistant since the departure of Pako Ayesteran in August 2007, moved to re-appoint Lee after first-team coach Alex Miller left to accept a managerial offer from Japanese side JEF United Chiba.

Lee - who has been out of work since last October when he was sacked following an unsuccessfully short stint as manager of Bolton - left Liverpool in 2004 as Benitez arrived at Anfield, but the Spaniard is thrilled to welcome the former England international back to Merseyside.

Passion

"We are very pleased to have brought Sammy back to Liverpool because he is someone who knows the club really well," said Benitez.

"He also knows about the passion of the club and about the standards that we set here so that will make it much easier for him to settle into his new role.

"But we have not brought Sammy back simply because he used to play for the club and used to work here as a coach.

"He is a very experienced and very well respected coach in his own right and his reputation in football made him the outstanding candidate when we knew we were looking for a new member of our coaching staff."

Progress

And Lee is also pleased to be returning to Liverpool and is looking forward to the prospect of teaming up with Benitez as the Reds target the Premier League title next season.

"I have been away for a while but everyone knows what this club means to me and it is a great pleasure to be back," Lee told Liverpool's official website.

"When a club the size of Liverpool comes in for you, and when a manager of the magnitude of Rafa Benitez wants you, then you cannot say no. When I found out they were interested in me I was really thrilled.

"After the sabbatical I have had I just wish the season was starting tomorrow, but the players have had a long, difficult and demanding season and they need to get away and get their batteries recharged.

"I think the club have made great progress over the last few years and they were so close to having a great season this time around. Hopefully we can keep improving and get to where we all want."