Forget Liverpool, Rafael Benitez Still Has Unfinished Business at Napoli

Recent, somewhat cryptic comments from Rafael Benitez have indicated he may be interested in becoming coach of Liverpool FC once again when his current contract with Napoli expires at the end of the season.

Unless the Spanish coach is able to achieve something remarkable in the remainder of the season with Napoli, fans of the southern Italian club would have the right to feel he has left his job unfinished should he leave so soon.

Benitez had the following to say to Sky Sports News, via ESPN.co.uk:

"

I have one year left this year and the future you never know.

But I am talking with the chairman, thinking about the future with Napoli and life and all the possibilities.

Also my family is still here in England so we have to consider a lot of things. But the main thing for me is to concentrate on my job and do my best for the next game.

Napoli is a team that is growing so we have to see how fast we can grow, and how fast we can improve things.

It's a discussion that we have had in the past and we have in the future. I don't know how many months we will be talking about that, but obviously we will be talking about that.

"

These statements could be taken in a number of ways.

Benitez, who spent three days in Merseyside with his family during the international break, may just be trying to give Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis a little reminder that he is trying to establish a project at Napoli and could use some more time to set it up.

Some have taken the comments to mean he wants his old job at Liverpool back.

Perhaps they can be taken at face value, with Benitez unsure where the future will lead him.

If the 54-year-old does end up moving back to Liverpool, or anywhere else, at season's end, he will likely be leaving unfinished business at Napoli.

Benitez took over from Walter Mazzarri for the 2013-14 season, leading the side to a third-place finish.

That result may have been respectable but was mitigated by the fact the side had finished second the year before and had spent big on strengthening the squad in the meantime following the sale of Edinson Cavani.

Much was expected of Benitez's second season in charge, then, as his project began to take shape more clearly.

Disappointing results early in the season, including elimination from the Champions League in the qualification phase, raised doubts about whether the Spaniard was guiding the club in the right direction.

Rather than pushing Roma and Juventus for top spot in the table, Napoli appeared to be quickly losing pace with their main title rivals.

Some more positive displays in recent weeks have steadied the ship, however, and the Partenopei now sit in third place on the ladder after 11 rounds.

They still trail Roma by four points and Juventus by seven, however.

If Benitez is serious about leaving a legacy at Napoli, he should want to depart with the club in a better position than when he arrived.

Thus far there is little evidence of that. The Azzurri are around about where they were when he first came to the club.

Unless an extremely strong performance in Serie A for the rest of the season sees them competing for the Scudetto in the final weeks of the campaign, or a positive start to the Europa League evolves into ultimate success in that competition, 2014-15 will just be another year of moderate results.

Fans in Naples would love to see further outlay over the next few transfer windows with a view to bolstering the side to the point where they can actually win the Italian title.

Benitez needs to be the man who oversees this masterplan. To leave before any real success is achieved would be a cop out.