Paco Ayestarán Barandiarán (born February 5, 1963 in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

) was a long-serving and successful Assistant Manager

Assistant Manager

An assistant manager is an employee of an organization with manager's authority. Examples of this position can be found in retail and other service businesses where the need to have more than one member of daily operations management is important....

 to football Manager

Coach (sport)

In sports, a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.-Staff:...

 Rafael Benítez

Rafael Benítez

Rafael "Rafa" Benítez Maudes is a football manager, and former player. He is currently unemployed, after leaving as manager of Internazionale in December 2010....

 at both Liverpool FC and Valencia

Valencia CF

Valencia Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football club based in Valencia, Spain. They play in La Liga and are one of the most successful and biggest clubs in Spanish Football and European Football. Valencia have won six La Liga titles, seven Copa del Rey trophies, two Fairs Cups which was the...

. He quit at the start of the 2007-08 season following an apparent disagreement, and was placed on gardening leave

Gardening leave

Garden leave describes the practice whereby an employee who is leaving a job is instructed to stay away from work during the notice period, while still remaining on the payroll...

 until June 30, 2008. He served as physical fitness

Physical fitness

Physical fitness comprises two related concepts: general fitness , and specific fitness...

 coach at SL Benfica

SL Benfica

Sport Lisboa e Benfica , commonly known as simply Benfica or occasionally as Benfica Lisbon, is a Portuguese multi-sports club based in Lisbon. Although they successfully compete in a number of different sports, Benfica is mostly known for its association football team...

 for the 2008-2009 season and returned to Valencia CF

Valencia CF

Valencia Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football club based in Valencia, Spain. They play in La Liga and are one of the most successful and biggest clubs in Spanish Football and European Football. Valencia have won six La Liga titles, seven Copa del Rey trophies, two Fairs Cups which was the...

 for the 2009-2010 season, leaving in the summer for professional reasons.

Ayestarán was a good friend and highly trusted companion of former Liverpool Manager Benitez. Ayestaran worked with Benitez since their time together at CD Tenerife

CD Tenerife

Club Deportivo Tenerife, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in Tenerife . Founded in 1922, it currently plays in Segunda División B, holding home matches at Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López, with a 24,000-seat capacity.-History:Club Deportivo Tenerife was founded in...

 and was instrumental in planning daily training at Melwood

Melwood

Melwood, in West Derby, Liverpool, is home to Liverpool FC's training ground. It is not attached to The Academy, which is in Kirkby.It is based in the West Derby area of Liverpool and has been their home since the fifties. The ground previously belonged to St Francis Xavier, a local school...

, Liverpool's training ground, and organising the physical work and fitness training of the team. He has also won two Spanish La Liga

La Liga

The Primera División of the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional , commonly known as La Liga or, for sponsorship reasons, Liga BBVA since 2008, is the top professional association football division of the Spanish football league system...

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 trained too much and need to play. When they say this, you know they truly do not understand."