Rafael Benitez has hit out at Inter for sacking him, saying time has shown he was right.

Benitez lasted less than six months in the Inter hot-seat, winning the Italian Supercup and Club World Cup but leaving the team 13 points adrift of their bitter city rivals Milan in the league, although with two games in hand.

Now working as a consultant for Eurosport, the Spaniard surprisingly claimed he would consider a return to Inter, not least because he says he has been vindicated.

In December, with his team struggling at the midway point of last season, Benitez said they needed to buy three or four players.

Inter sacked him but then bought four players, improving notably under Leonardo in the second half of the season.

“In life, time can tell you yes or no and if you were right it says yes,” Benitez told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“And here I am, it (life) has told me because they bought, showing that they needed to.

“In my pre-season we bought no-one, after me they bought four players and let six go.

“The problem is they needed to do it sooner, to buy and rejuvenate. Had they done that with me we would have won a lot.

“But maybe Inter missed an opportunity.

“It’s like Alexis Sanchez (then at Udinese), a great signing for Barcelona.

“I asked for Sanchez in January and back then he would have cost half as much.

“They gave me many promises but they didn’t buy anyone.”

Despite his bitter experience, Benitez admits he would consider a return, but that maybe in no small part to his insistence he will only take a job with a team that could win the Champions League.

“Yes, maybe I would return, but there would need to be some clarification, I don’t have problems with anyone,” he said.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.