Benítez became only the third manager, after Bob Paisley and José Mourinho, to win the UEFA Cup and UEFA Champions League in successive seasons. He is also the first manager to achieve this with two different clubs. He became the second Liverpool manager, after Joe Fagan, to win the European Cup/UEFA Champions League in his first season in charge. Throughout his career Benítez has also won several individual awards. He was awarded Manager Of the Year titles by both Don Balón and El País in 2002 while at Valencia CF and was named Madrid Coach of the Year for 2005 by Seven Stars Sport.

Benítez has achieved success at both Valencia CF and Liverpool FC with mainly inherited squads. Of the fourteen players used in the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final, twelve were at Liverpool when Benítez arrived. However, his transfer policy at Liverpool of bringing exciting young players from around the world indicate he is trying to build his own squad to compete on all fronts.

The Reds new owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett provided Benitez with additional transfer funds for the new season to attempt to bridge the gap to Premiership rivals Manchester United and Chelsea. Some observers commented it would be interesting to see how Benitez coped with having a "blank chequebook" as it was a situation he had never experienced in his managerial career.

He broke Liverpool's transfer record to sign Spanish striker Fernando “ el nino ” Torres (I like Torres especially after him two goals vs Derby County) from Athletico Madrid as well as signing young Dutch winger Ryan Babel, West Ham winger Yossi Benayoun, Andriy Voronin on a bosman and Brazilian midfielder Lucas Pezzini Leiva. During the pre-season he also invested in a number of young foreign players such as Bulgarian under-21 goalkeeper Nicolay Mihaylov and Krisztian Nemeth. Charles Itandje was signed as cover for Pepe Reina after Scott Carson (Carson playing well when Aston Villa beat Chelsea 2-0 last week, two goals from (16) Zat Knight and (11) Agbonlahor. Ashley Young is man of the match) was reluctantly loaned to Aston Villa for the season.

Benitez also sold several players in the summer, including fan-favourites Robbie “the God” Fowler (Fowler is retired ?), Luis García and Jerzy Dudek also Craig Bellamy, who fell out of favour with Benitez following the golf-club incident with John Arne Riise.

Benitez also tried to sign left-back Gabriel Heinze from Manchester United (the bad news is United got Tevez from Westham,did you see how Tevez Struggling to save Westham last season ?), however on August 21 2007, an FA panel ruled that Manchester United were under no obligation to sell Heinze to a rival club. Traditionally, players do not transfer between these fierce rivals and many supporters were surprised at Benitez' determination to sign a player from a team his team's fan's dislike intently. The outcome of this saga caused Benitez to launch a stinging attack on the The FA's treatment of Liverpool and percieved bias towards Manchester United.
The Reds made a good start to the new season, going unbeaten in August and topping the Premier League table for the first time under Benitez after a comprehensive 6-0 win over Derby County (Alonso 27’, Babel 45’, Torres 56’, Alonso 69’, Voronin 76’, Torres 78’). They conceded just two goals in this period, both penalties, the second of which controversially denied our victory against Chelsea. The referee in question, Rob Styles, has since apologised to Benitez for his error.