Benitez would suit Manchester United, says Hamann
Former Liverpool midfielder Dietmar Hamann argues that Manchester United should consider replacing David Moyes with Rafa Benitez.
The Scot left Old Trafford on Tuesday after just 10 months in charge of the Red Devils, with the club set for their lowest Premier League finish since 1989-90.
Benitez has previous Premier League experience, most recently with Chelsea, but also spent six years at United’s bitter rivals Liverpool, winning the Champions League with the Reds.
Goal understands that United’s owners, the Glazer family, are due at Carrington on Friday to discuss Moyes’s successor and Hamann feels that the Spaniard should be part of their talks.
“It is certainly a name they should consider,” he told talkSPORT. “They need somebody with a track record who can work with the big players, who knows what is required to get in the Champions League and play a big role in it for years to come.
“Rafa Benitez is in Italy at Napoli but his family still lives in the North West and he has always made it clear that he would love to return to the Premier League at some stage.” The stadium that will host the opening match of the 2014 World Cup will not stage a test match in front of a full house before the tournament kicks off on June 12 because of building work being carried out in the arena.
The Arena Corinthians was built to hold 48,000 and another 20,000 temporary seats are being added for the World Cup.
But with work in and around the ground still ongoing, 18,000 seats will be left empty for the test event featuring Corinthians and Figueirense on either May 17 or 18.
“The crowd (for the test match), under an agreement between Corinthians and LOC (Local Organising Committee) and FIFA, will be 50,000 people,” Sao Paulo’s deputy mayor Nadia Campeao told reporters.
There were contradictory statements from FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke about the issue on Tuesday.
“Next important event for us will be on 17 or 18 May when the first official test with full capacity will take place at Arena de Sao Paulo,” Valcke said on Twitter.
But when challenged about the capacity for the test event, he admitted there would not be a full house and highlighted that South Africa also staged events before the 2010 tournament in front of reduced crowds.
“It is not a big deal,” Valcke told Reuters. “Two-thirds of the capacity is good.”
The Arena Corinthians will stage the opening Cup match between hosts Brazil and Croatia.
Valcke, however, has constantly fretted over the late delivery of stadiums and facilities and insisted the delays make it tough to properly test everything.
“Sao Paulo will be ready for the opening game,” Valcke said on the first day of a four-day trip to Brazil. “That doesn’t mean Sao Paulo will be ready in time. As you know, the delivery date for the stadium was 15 Jan, 2014.”