Rafael Benitez has remained coy about his Napoli future, although he did remark that he will make a decision before the end of the season.
The former Liverpool manager’s current contract with the Italian club runs out at the end of the season though he stressed that his entire focus at the moment lies in helping his side finish second in the Serie A.
Benitez has been linked with Newcastle United of the Premier League who are yet to appoint a permanent replacement for Alan Pardew who joined Crystal Palace in January.
Speaking in to Canal Plus, the Benitez said, “I’ll speak about my future before the end of the season.”
“For now I want to stay focused on the present, and the games we have coming up. I have a good relationship with the players and the club, there’s still time to discuss this issue.”
“When I leave Napoli, whether that’s in a year or five years, I want to the team to be more mature, especially at European level, with a squad to face every challenge.
“Juventus have a bigger and stronger squad than the rest of the league which pays off over the course of the season. But we can compete with them in one-off matches as we showed in the Supercoppa Italiana in Doha.”
“As for second place, if we maintain our current push we have an excellent chance of achieving that. Much will depend on Roma, but if they slip up, we’ll definitely take advantage of that.”
He has also been linked with a move to French champions Paris Saint Germain who have reportedly have the Spaniard as third choice behind Diego Simeone and Arsene Wenger while Borussia Dortmunda s Jurgen Klopp and Ajaxa s Frank De Boer have been linked with the Napoli post should the Spaniard leave the club.
Napolia s sporting director Riccardo Bigon has praised Benitez recently insisting that they must focus on the present and that they will have a clearer picture of the future in a couple of months.
Benitez was Liverpool manager for six years where he guided them to their 5th Champions League trophy in Istanbul during his debut season. They also reached the final of the Champions League in 2006/2007 and finished as the runner-up in the Premier League in 2008/09.
With Napoli, he has won the Supercoppa Italiana this season adding to the Coppa Italia which they won last season.