Rafa Benitez admitted to Sky Sports that he is ready for a return to management and is targeting the Premier League but Wolves legend Steve Bull doesn’t see the Spaniard as an upgrade on Nuno Espirito Santo.
The former Newcastle United manager had been managing in China for the last two years but left his job with Dalian Professional citing the COVID-19 pandemic as a deciding factor.
Who's the better manager?
Benitez!
Nuno!
There are similarities between both Nuno and Benitez as they’re both pragmatic managers, like to have a solid defensive base to build upon and prefer to have their dies set up to play on the counter-attack.
Benitez would have a great squad to build upon which Nuno had established over his four-seasons at Molineux but Bull would not see the Spaniard as an upgrade on the recently departed Nuno, as he explained exclusively to This is Futbol:
“He’s not an upgrade on Nuno because Nuno was probably at that same level when he left us.
“You’d take him all day long because I think with some managers they just leave clubs or get sacked for the wrong reasons, but a new job could relight the spark in them.”
It seems like Wolves have to get a manager that will get results on the pitch but someone who will also connect and create a bond with the fans, something Nuno did at Wolves and also what Benitez did at Newcastle.
Both managers were active within the community and always wanted to help give back which means more to fans than getting results on the pitch and hands managers an extra bit of leeway when things go slightly pear-shaped.