Benitez joins managers who have crossed derby divide

For any Everton manager, it is important to understand the significance of the club's local rivalry with Liverpool.

And the Toffees' new boss Rafael Benitez will certainly not need a lesson on that score.

After all, the Spaniard spent six seasons in charge of Liverpool from 2004 to 2010, winning the UEFA Champions League and FA Cup.

When Benitez joined Liverpool

Benitez also enjoyed great success in the Merseyside derby, leading the Reds to eight victories in 12 Premier League matches against Everton.

Now he finds himself on the other side of the fence at Goodison Park, less than a mile away from his old ground at Anfield.

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The spotlight will be firmly trained on the 61-year-old when Everton host Liverpool at the end of November.

But he is by no means the first manager to take on such a challenge and manage two clubs in the Premier League who share a local rivalry.

Swapping sides

Some managers have even been bold enough to head straight from one team to the other.

Harry Redknapp moved from Portsmouth to their south-coast rivals Southampton in 2004, and then back again a year later.

Alex McLeish swapped Birmingham City for Aston Villa in 2011. And when Mark Hughes left Fulham that same summer, his next job was nearby at Queens Park Rangers.

In 2012, Andre Villas-Boas left Chelsea and joined Tottenham Hotspur, becoming one of three men to manage each of those clubs, alongside Glenn Hoddle and Jose Mourinho.

Other managers have left more of a gap before taking charge of a rival, like Benitez.

George Graham won silverware with Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur but had a spell with Leeds United in between, while Claudio Ranieri took charge of Fulham 14 years after leaving Chelsea.

Sam Allardyce and Steve Bruce have both taken charge of north-east rivals Newcastle United and Sunderland but had other jobs in between. And there were nine years between Eric Black's caretaker spells in charge of Birmingham and Villa.

Benitez is also part of a select group of managers who have overseen at least 340 Premier League matches.

With precisely that total to his name, he ranks 11th in the all-time list, and a full season at Everton would take him above Martin O’Neill, Mourinho and Roy Hodgson into eighth place.

Meanwhile, Benitez becomes the 12th manager to take charge of a fourth different Premier League club, having had spells with Chelsea and Newcastle in addition to his Merseyside clubs.

Only six men have exceeded his total. 

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