Football
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Napoli coach Rafael Benitez defends trip to Liverpool to visit family

Napoli coach Rafael Benitez has defended his decision to return to Merseyside to spend three days with his family during the international break after causing controversy the first time he did it earlier this season.

With his side now up to third in Serie A, Benitez's trip has not received the same level of criticism it did back in September, when the Naples club had made a difficult start to the campaign and he was seen by fans to be abandoning them.

To avoid a repeat, the former Liverpool boss chose to remain in Naples during the October international break, but he said he could not have stayed away from his family for any longer.

"My family's far away from me with my wife and two daughters living in Liverpool," he told Il Corriere dello Sport. "It's the first time I don't have them living with me and it's difficult, but [president Aurelio] De Laurentiis knows how important the family is."

Benitez has justified his decision to give the Napoli squad three days of rest to coincide with his own break, which he says he is more than owed given the amount of work he does.

Since taking charge in the summer of 2013, he has been living in a hotel room overlooking the club's training complex on the Campania coast.

"The truth is I had planned these three days off and then four days of training," Benitez said. "I live in the hotel which is attached to our training ground and I even work 16 hours a day, and I have top-class staff.

"I have faith in them even if I go away for a few days during the break. I don't think you'll find an Italian coach who lives at his training ground and spends the amount time I spend with my players."

Benitez could be about to sign a new contract with the Serie A club, although he says his priority is ensuring the side develops, with or without him.

"My experience teaches me that we have to work on the project we're currently on, but without forgetting to look beyond it," he said. "I often talk to [director of sport] Riccardo Bigon and I tell him and De Laurentiis all the time that they have to guarantee this club's future regardless of me.

"Signing a new contract is not a problem, it's about sharing the same roadmap. And it's not about money or investments either. We need to work hard to see if we can win something and if we can go further or not."

Even with money to invest, having spent little of his budget over the summer, Benitez has no intention of parting with any of it to bring Liverpool's Mario Balotelli back to Italy, despite reports to the contrary.

"Absolutely not -- that's a hypothesis that I've never even taken into consideration," Benitez said. "The Liverpool fans are very faithful and if he works hard on the field, they will support him."

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