A report in the Independent has claimed that it is unlikely that Rafa Benitez will be joining Celtic as manager.
Neil Lennon is currently in the job but as a managerial review continues to drag on it seems only a matter of timing before the former Hibs and Bolton boss steps aside.
Evans is a former Times Football Editor, charting the career of Benitez before and after his time at Liverpool which peaked at the 2005 Champions League win over AC Milan in Istanbul.
Since it was announced at the weekend that Benitez had left his club in China there has been speculation linking Benitez with Celtic but writing in The Independent, Evans pours cold water on a move to Scotland:
Rafa Benitez is keen to get back into management after leaving Dalian Professional, the Chinese Super League (CSL) team this weekend. Although the 60-year-old has been liked with a move to Celtic, he wants a job in the Premier League.
The former Newcastle United manager decided not to go back to China because of the pandemic rather than offers of employment at home. A number of teams across Europe have contacted him about his availability in recent months but the Spaniard is waiting for the right position to come up.
The decision not to return to Dalian is recent. Benitez cancelled an appearance on Sky’s Monday Night Football this month in anticipation of flying to the Far East. There was some disquiet among foreign coaches and players that the CSL planned for them to quarantine in Wuhan, where the virus first emerged 13 month ago. The former Liverpool manager was frustrated, too, about the way the game functioned in China. He came to believe that the sport was structured to favour certain clubs and that the odds were stacked against Dalian and a number of other teams. Benitez had almost a year left on a contract that paid in the region of £1m a month and he has never hidden the fact that the money was one of the main attractions of China but his competitive instincts have not been blunted. He wants his next club to have a chance of winning trophies.
Neil Lennon is in deep trouble at Celtic but Benitez is unlikely to go to Scotland, even if it presents a chance to rack silverware. Hopes have risen on Tyneside that he will return to St James’ Park. Steve Bruce is on the brink in the north east but Benitez’s previous experience with Mike Ashley makes it almost impossible to envisage that he would work with the present ownership.
At the age of 60 Benitez sits at cross-roads in his career with Liverpool, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Inter Milan on his CV.
In 2016 he took charge of Newcastle despite relegation looking very likely and stuck around to bring them up from the Championship.
It looks unlikely that he will be offered the manager’s job at another elite club (a Champions League winner in the last 20 years) but whether Celtic can pull off another ‘Rodgers type’ deal remains to be seen.
CLICK HERE for Evans’ Liverpool background.
