Lee returns to spiritual home as Anfield No2

LIVERPOOL manager Rafael Benitez put the Scouse heart back into his coaching staff yesterday by appointing Sammy Lee as his new assistant manager.

If there has been a criticism of Benitez's backroom staff it is that the local connection has disappeared. But Lee's return to the club will be met with the wholesale approval of the fans and certainly the Liverpool-based stars at Anfield.

Benitez has not only lost his Spanish assistant Paco Ayesteran this season, but earlier in the month coach Alex Miller left to take up a management post in Japan.

And Benitez alluded to the need for a Liverpool heart to be restored to the backroom by saying: "We are very pleased to have brought Sammy back to Liverpool because he is someone who knows the club really well.

"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.

"He will add something different to what we already have and it will be good to work with him."

Lee already has a great relationship with the Kop, having been a key figure in the glory days of the 1980s as a player, winning the European Cup, league title and league cup.

After his playing career ended he returned to the club as reserve team manager and then first-team coach under Graeme Souness and Gerard Houllier. He initially left Anfield to maintain his coach role in the England set-up, before taking over as assistant manager and then the replacement for Sam Allardyce at Bolton. But he was sacked by the Reebok club earlier this season, and has been out of the game until Benitez's approach earlier this month.

Now Lee is back at his spiritual home, and he said: "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."