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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Jonathan Gorrie

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

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.”

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