Mourinho rises to the bait to take another swipe at Benitez

Jose Mourinho has hit back at Rafael Benitez's wife – with a remarkable jibe about his rival manager's weight.

Mourinho found time following his side’s 4-2 penalty shoot-out victory over Barcelona in Washington to attack Benitez, the Real Madrid coach, after Benitez’s wife teased Mourinho by saying he left a mess at the Bernabeu that her husband will have to clean up.

There is little love lost between Mourinho and Benitez, and the dislike will only fester even further after the Chelsea manager launched a withering riposte.

Benitez has coached Mourinho's former teams three times: at Inter, Chelsea, and now Real Madrid, and Montserrat Seara, Benitez's wife, poked fun at the Portuguese coach in the Galician newspaper La Region.

Crossing paths

“Real are the third of Jose Mourinho’s old teams Rafa has coached,” she joked. “We tidy up his messes! If you think about it, of course you end up crossing paths. There are only a few world-class clubs out there.”

Mourinho said: "The lady is a bit confused, with all respect. I'm not laughing, because her husband went to Chelsea to replace Roberto Di Matteo and he went to Real Madrid and replaced Carlo Ancelotti.

“The only club where her husband replaced me was at Inter Milan, where in six months he destroyed the best team in Europe at the time.

“And for her also to think about me and to speak about me, I think she needs to occupy her time, and if she takes care of her husband’s diet she will have less time to speak about me.”

Meanwhile, Chelsea have had a second offer of €37 million for John Stones turned down by Everton, while Manchester United have also made known their interest in the defender.

United have contacted intermediaries working on Stones’s behalf to make him aware that they would welcome him at Old Trafford but they have not yet made a formal approach to Everton and it is Chelsea who are at the front of the queue for his signature.

Jose Mourinho sees the 21-year-old as a potential long-term successor to John Terry and, although the Chelsea captain remains integral to the club's starting XI, there is the acknowledgement at Stamford Bridge that now is the time to test Everton's resolve.

Were Chelsea to wait for another season, Stones’s price would surely rise.

As it is, Everton will refuse to sell him for less than GBP30 million (€42 million), which would represent quite a mark-up – they signed him for GBP3m from Barnsley in January 2013. Everton rejected Chelsea’s opening bid of €28 million last week and they gave short shrift to Tuesday’s bid.

Chelsea's pursuit of the player and how Mourinho was happy to talk about it last week during the club's tour of the United States have annoyed Roberto Martinez. The Everton manager wants to buy a centre-half not sell one, having released Sylvain Distin.

Four years

Stones has four years to run on his contract and has said in public that he is happy at the club. Chelsea and United, however, could offer him Champions League football.

Stones, who has four England caps, would be considered as homegrown in terms of the Premier League and Champions League, which would be a boon to Chelsea, and allow them to add to their options.

He would also provide cover at right-back for Branislav Ivanovic.

Mourinho, who has been relatively quiet so far this summer in terms of senior additions, having signed only Radamel Falcao on loan and Asmir Begovic, recognises that the market for young, English talent remains inflated.

“It is the market and you only pay it if you want it. If you don’t want to pay it, don’t pay. It’s as simple as that. The market has no rules or limits from season to season,” he said last week.

(Guardian service)