Revealed: Rangers' bid for Sean Longstaff

Benitez – who left the club in the summer – has written about Gerrard, his former Liverpool captain, in his latest column for The Athletic.

And the 59-year-old has revealed that Rangers’ manager approached him about Longstaff, 21, last year before the midfielder established himself as a first-team player at St James’s Park.

“In the summer of last year, Stevie called me about Sean Longstaff,” said Benitez. “Rangers were interested, and he asked whether they could sign him on loan, but I told him ‘no’ – he’d be staying at Newcastle United.

“Some people have said “oh, Rafa was lucky because of Longstaff’, but we’d been watching him, and we were happy with him. We played him in the first team, supported him and gave him confidence. Turning Rangers down is proof of what we thought of Sean.”