What Rafa Benitez has already said about Premier League return amid growing West Ham links

Spaniard came close to joining Hammers in 2015
Jonathan Gorrie22 February 2023

Rafa Benitez has already indicated he would be willing to make a return to the Premier League amid links with West Ham.

The former Chelsea, Liverpool and Newcastle manager has been out of work since leaving Everton just over a year ago but has been touted as a potential replacement for David Moyes in east London.

After a major spending spree over the course of the summer, the Hammers sit in the bottom three and the pressure is back on the Scot.

Standard Sport understands the club are still backing Moyes heading into Saturday’s crunch six-pointer against Nottingham Forest but it remains to be seen whether they would forced into action should the team suffer another defeat.

High-profile targets Mauricio Pochettino and Thomas Tuchel are said to be uninterested in the position and a dearth of available options has led to Leeds and Southampton struggling to make appointments.

Benitez, however, has previously been close to joining West Ham, revealing back in 2019 that the club were “one of the options” when he left Napoli in 2015.

Of a potential return to the Premier League, Benitez told Sky Sports earlier this month: “I am fine and happy in England in terms of the Premier League, my family and everything, so sometimes you make decisions that are a risk, but the reality is that the Premier League is the best league now in the world and I want to be around Europe.

“I am fine and happy in England in terms of the Premier League, my family and everything, so sometimes you make decisions that are a risk, but the reality is that the Premier League is the best league now in the world and I want to be around Europe.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in