Mourinho makes Benitez weight jibe

Benitez’s wife Montserrat Seara earlier in the week joked that her husband has come to Real Madrid to clean up Mourinho’s mess just like he has also done in previous clubs.

The former Napoli boss replaced Carlo Ancelloti at Madrid and has now replaced Mourinho at three different clubs, having taking over at Inter and Chelsea.

Mourinho, now in his second stint guiding Chelsea, said that when Benitez did follow him at Inter, “in six months he destroyed the best team in Europe at the time”.

“For her also, to think about me, and to speak about me, she needs to occupy her time”.

September 2005: Benitez takes aim at Chelsea’s playing style following their Premier League title win.

They have not worked in the same country for eight years, and yet the feud between Rafa Benitez and Jose Mourinho shows no signs of abating.

The two men actually found common ground when both arriving in English football in the summer of 2004, Mourinho to Chelsea and Benitez to Liverpool, but this collegiate atmosphere quickly degenerated amid the heat of competition.

It’ll be interesting to see how Benitez does with the Spanish giants, as anything other than La Liga and Champions League glory will ultimately lead to the sack.

The ESPN FC crew respond to your tweets in regards to whether or not Arturo Vidal makes it into Bayern Munich’s starting XI and how Shaka Hislop enjoyed interviewing Jose Mourinho.

Benitez enjoyed greater success during his brief reign as interim Chelsea boss in the 2012-13 season, when he secured Champions League qualification and won the Europa League, but he arrived at Stamford Bridge over five years after Mourinho’s exit.

Mourinho said Benitez was his direct successor only once – when he left Inter Milan in 2010. “If yes, he goes [on Wednesday] to make a mask to be ready to play Sunday”.