Benitez: ‘I won two trophies in six months at Inter, not bad’

Former Inter coach Rafael Benitez defended his six-month spell with the Nerazzurri, highlighting how nothing was spent on the squad.

The Spanish coach, who famously oversaw Liverpool’s Champions League final comeback against Milan in Istanbul, replaced Jose Mourinho at Inter in July 2010, joining on a high after a positive six-year period with the Reds. Things were not easy in Lombardy for Benitez and he was dismissed after less than six months, leaving in December of that year.

Speaking to Sky Calcio Club, Benitez looked back at his brief time with Inter and defended his work in the dugout. 

“I won two trophies in six months at Inter, the Super Cup and the World Cup, not bad. And then how much did we spend? Zero. I’m talking about what they told me when I arrived, we spent zero. 

“We also had players who wanted to go, then at the last minute they changed their minds because we didn’t sign anyone. We were coming from a season with three trophies, 15 players over 30, many injuries. 

“As a coach what you have to do is analyse the squad, we had players who earned a lot and missed 30-40% of the games. 

“That year you had to change and it wasn’t done, I knew we could win the World Cup because we had the quality and they knew how to win, but they didn’t understand that we had to change. 

“I’m not saying that much, two or three players would have been enough to create competition in the team. That in a team is fundamental, you have to change players to be competitive.”

Benitez oversaw 15 Serie A games during his time in charge of Inter, picking up six wins, five draws and four losses. 

Benitez was replaced by Leonardo at the end of December 2010. Inter struggled to find consistency with a coach for years, going through 10 coaches between Benitez and the first to find some stability, Luciano Spalletti.