Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 9y

Napoli manager Rafael Benitez says he 'turned down two offers' this month

Napoli coach Rafael Benitez says he has "turned down two offers" in the past fortnight, proving his commitment to the Serie A side, to whom he is contracted until the summer.

Negotiations over a new deal for next season have yet to take place amid rumours club president Aurelio De Laurentiis is no longer so convinced by the Spaniard.

Napoli are currently seventh in Serie A after losing to AC Milan at the weekend, although the gap to third is only two points.

They can rise above four teams by beating Parma on Thursday night, but Benitez does not want to stop there, nor does he see any reason why he will be stopping with Napoli in the summer.

"I will give 100 percent until the very last day of my contract here, and then if I get offered an extension I'll look into it," he said at a news conference. "I've turned down two offers in the past fortnight because I'm tied to Napoli. There will be time to think about my future further down the line."

Results will determine whether or not Benitez will have a future at the club next season, with a place in the Champions League the objective.

Third place would earn them a change of qualifying for the group stage, but after losing out in a playoff to Athletic Bilbao last August, Benitez is not settling just for that.

"I need to carry on along this road trying to get to the destination and then we will draw the necessary conclusions," he said. "We've dropped at least 10 points this season undeservedly, also for our own fault, for some injuries and for some refereeing decisions.

"We can finish higher than third, but we've still got to improve. This squad is stronger, more balanced and younger than the one I had last year, and the club are working on strengthening it further."

However, De Laurentiis says he will not break the bank to provide Benitez with new players this winter, ruling out a move for highly rated Paulo Dybala from Palermo -- a player his club's president Maurizio Zamparini has valued at over 40 million euros.

"We don't need him," he told mediagol.it. "We're fine as we are up front. Zamparini is trying to resolve his own financial problems with one footballer, who is a good player, but I cannot ruin Napoli's finances just to please Zamparini.

"We'll just go and find other Dybalas. I don't want to talk about the transfer market other than to say that we have people working on it and I'm sure they will do a very good, professional job."

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