Journalist Fabrizio Romano has revealed that Rafa Benitez is not yet a "concrete" option to replace Brendan Rodgers at Leicester City.
What's the latest on Rafa Benitez and Leicester?
After a frankly turgid Premier League season, the Foxes finally decided to come to a “mutual agreement” with their coach and part ways.
This means Rodgers leaves Leicester in the midst of a worrying relegation battle with the club 19th in the division with ten games left to keep themselves afloat.
With that in mind, whoever comes in now won't have long to turn things around and so the Foxes may want to hire someone with good experience at handling this kind of situation.
Following that logic, Benitez has emerged as one of the favourites to come in and take over from Rodgers in the near future.
However, when talking about it all on the House of Champions: A CBS Soccer Podcast, Romano explained that there is nothing set in stone just yet.
He said (12:33): "I also heard some rumours of Rafa Benitez but I'm told that at the moment it is not something advanced or that concrete."
Who will be the next Leicester manager?
The 62-year-old Spaniard would certainly arrive with all the prerequisite experience of English football, pushing in title challenges and relegation scraps.
After all, he has managed the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle United and Everton. In that time, he did get relegated with the Magpies but was only in charge for ten games that season and has never finished lower than 13th when in charge for a full campaign.
The good thing is, Benitez does seem to be keen on returning to management too. Indeed, he recently told the Daily Mail he is open to taking on a new challenge, saying: “Yeah, yeah, for sure. The good thing I have is that because I have managed so many years and because I was successful, I can decide."
However, it sounds as though he is quite picky: “I have had around 20 offers since I left Everton. National teams, different teams in Asia, in the Emirates, in Mexico. National teams everywhere.
“Some teams in England, some teams in Spain. The reality is you need to find the right one, the team that will allow you to build.”
With that in mind, it remains to be seen if the Spaniard would be up for the challenge of keeping Leicester from avoiding the drop. Although, his most recent venture saw him earn 19 points in 19 league matches with the Toffees, boasting a win percentage of just 31.8%.
Other names to be mentioned in the media are Thomas Frank, Ange Postecoglou, and Michael Carrick but all of those are currently in work. So perhaps Benitez is the most realistic target for now.
