Benitez open to building at the Bridge

Rafael Benitez has made it clear that he is open to job offers in the Premier League — including, in the longer term, from Chelsea.

Well-placed sources have indicated that, even before Andres Villas-Boas got the chop at the weekend, the former Liverpool manager had been sounded out about taking over at Stamford Bridge, at least until the end of the season, but the Spaniard decided against taking up an interim position.

Benitez declined to confirm that story yesterday but did allow that he required “a proper offer on the table” before he could say yes or no to any club. The manager, out of work since parting company with Inter Milan in December 2010, was speaking in Trinity College where last night he was awarded the Gold Medal of Honorary Patronage by the university’s Philosophical Society.