Rafa Benitez has barely spent an a day out of the newspapers over the past season and that is continuing in the close season with the speculation surrounding the Spaniard reaching fever pitch. Benitez has suffered a turbulent season at Anfield with the club struggling on and off the pitch and it now appears that he could well be moving on with several big clubs lurking. There has been strong speculation that Rafa was on his way to Juventus this Summer but that move now appears to be off with Inter Milan monitoring the situation very closely, Jose Mourinho is widely expected to leave Inter for Real Madrid meaning that there will be a vacancy to fill at the San Siro.

Benitez is thought to be meeting with the new Chairman at Liverpool Chairman over the next few weeks to decide his next career move, Martin Broughton has been brought to Anfield to oversee the sale of the club but he does also have the unenviable task of sorting out the future of the former Valencia Manager. Liverpool have had a disastrous season in the Premier League in finishing 7th with the team struggling away from Anfield, that follows a season when they finished 2nd behind Man United and were expected to kick-on this campaign and go for the title.

The one thing in the favour of Rafa is that he does still have a good reputation across Europe for his exploits in the Champions League over the past few years and Inter Milan in particular are understood to have taken note of that. Inter have accepted that Mourinho will be off to Madrid in the Summer and are already turning their attentions to potential successors, Inter have turned themselves into one of the top teams in the World with five succesive Serie A titles. The lure of Inter Milan and Champions League football next season may prove hard to resist for Benitez with Liverpool needing to overhaul their squad, that is going to be tough for any Manager with finances tight at Anfield until any potential takeover is completed.

It is understood that the powers that be at Anfield are eager to get the situation with Benitez sorted as soon as possible with the squad needing an overhaul, so it will be crucial that if Rafa is going to move on then a replacement will need to be sorted asap. Mourinho could well be the crucial man this Summer with his move to Madrid likely to set off a chain of events involving Benitez and then any potential replacements for Rafa himself.

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