Benitez speak of his West Ham job chance

Rafa Benitez has confirmed that he had the option of become the Hammers manager back in 2015.

The Irons have often said that he was within a few minutes of putting pen to paper before they were hijacked by Real Madrid who snapped him up as their successor to Carlo Ancelotti.

Rafa, however, stops short of claiming he was minutes away claiming instead we were one of three options before the club eventually turned to Slaven Bilic before the Spaniard headed for the Madrid giants.

He lasted just seven months in the job before moving on to Newcastle in the March of 2016 and since then hold two league wins over the Irons last season when we were beaten 3-0 at St James’ Park and 3-2 at home.

He said of the West Ham managerial possibility: “It (West Ham) was one of the options. That is why people talk about me and West Ham. The question with West Ham was when I was in Napoli.

“Then I got a phone call off Real Madrid. At this time I was interested. I do not have anything I can say about this or that (from May, when West Ham were said to interested again).”

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon