Although Jose Mourinho and Rafael Benitez manage in different countries, this has not stopped their old feud making public headlines again. The two managers had a fierce rivalry when Mourinho was at Chelsea during his first spell and when Benitez was at Liverpool.
Benitez hit back at Mourinho’s claims that Benitez had underachieved during his brief spell as Chelsea manager. Benitez won the Europa League whilst at Chelsea and turned many of the fans opinions around after, what can only be describe as a rocky reception when he first took over.
Now Napoli manager, this has not stopped Benitez finding time to mock Mourinho’s recent comments that Chelsea need to spend and invest more money to build a winning and successful team. Rafa even went as far as to call the Special one a specialist of European Failure. This comment might seem strange due to Mourinho’s two Champions League wins, but Benitez was referring to his failure to win the competition with Real Madrid, but also the two losses to Rafa’s Liverpool side.
Benitez, who won the Champions League with Liverpool in 2005, said: “Mourinho talks a lot about a lot of people, but I prefer to talk about facts. At Liverpool, with a squad half of the value of Chelsea, we twice knocked his Chelsea side out of the Champions League.
“Later, with the most expensive squad at Real Madrid, he did nothing in the Champions League. Now he says if there is an offer of hundreds of millions for Hazard and Oscar, maybe he can build a strong squad to win something.”
Asked about Chelsea’s weekend defeat after his Napoli beat Juventus, Benitez told Italian TV: “I am happy for Liverpool – I have lots of friends there.”
It is clear there is no love loss in this rivalry and it is a feud that will continue to attract attention. Although in separate leagues at this moment in time, the future could see these lock horns again and continue to push the rivalry to new levels.
Written By Kyle Farrington
