"Yes, Stoke City were very interested in Sami. But we said we wanted him to stay and we want to keep him so it was very clear," said Rafael Benitez.
"He has signed a new one-year deal and we are very happy with him.
"If I was to talk about Sami Hyypia I could be talking for half an hour because he is a fantastic professional, a nice person and a really good player, so we don't want to sell him."