On his first full day in the Chelsea job, the Spaniard was greeted with a typical barb from his old sparring
partner Ferguson , who claimed he was "lucky" to be in a position to win a
second Club World Cup.
Benitez, however,
responded by talking
about how he ranked
Wenger above the
Manchester United
manager when he first came to England, and that any such comments were
only in reply to other
managers "pushing him".
"No, I don't enjoy that
[mind games]. I enjoy my team playing well and winning games. I have to defend my team, my club, so I cannot wait while they push and push,"
Benitez said.
"You're playing to win
trophies, and only one can win it. Some managers in the middle of the table
can be friendly, but only one wins it. People try to win in different ways. I like to respect people, but
sometimes I cannot
because they push you...
"There are a lot of good managers in the world, many who have won trophies. I don't like to talk about other managers. When I came to England I knew the other
managers. Arsene Wenger was the best manager who had been here for a
while. But I cannot talk about these things every day."

www.soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1237840/rafa-benitez:-i-ranked-arsene-wenger-above-sir-alex-ferguson?cc=3888