Now Benitez has questioned why United's chief executive is on a lot of Football Association committees.
"They were saying we are not a threat. Now they know we are, they are starting mind games," he is quoted in the Daily Mirror.
"But I don't think it's a mind game when you have control over everything, it's a mind game when you have the same level as the other people, then you can show you are cleverer than the others.
"But when you have control of everything and your chief executive is powerful in the FA and things like this, then that is not mind games.
"Is there a conflict of interest with David Gill at the FA?
"That is another fact. It is a fact that one person has a lot of power and control, and is on a lot of committees in the FA. To me that is very strange."