Benitez praises soccer man Moratti, blasts Liverpool

MILAN (Reuters) -- Rafael Benitez is glad to be working with someone who knows their soccer in Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti after the coach said he spent his last year at Liverpool with directors who knew nothing about it. The Spaniard joined the European and Italian champions in the close season having left Liverpool after six years in charge of the Premier League club.

"The last year at Liverpool I had directors who knew nothing nothing about soccer and you couldn't talk about soccer with them," he told a news conference on Tuesday without specifying who he meant by "directors".

"My relationship with president Moratti is good, he is a man who knows his soccer."

His relationship with Liverpool's American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who put the indebted club up for sale in April, was strained at times but Benitez had previously stayed silent about his Anfield exit.

Benitez, whose new side are joint top and host Bari on Wednesday in their fourth Serie A outing of the season, took over from Real Madrid-bound Jose Mourinho after Inter sealed an unprecedented Italian treble last term.