"We had good information on him. I know the people in Villarreal. And, of course, we have Pepe Reina," said Benitez, on his latest aquisition.
"He knows the players there. One of the Villarreal players was here for three days, and we asked about Jan and we then knew a lot more about him. I didn't ask whether he was good or not, but more on the qualities of the player and how he is as a professional and a person. The reports were good.
"With Jan, he has experience at international level and speaks English. Maybe he will need some time to adapt. But I always say it is a long race, we will have a lot of games, and we need hungry players with experience.
"We need to know what he can do for us, then when we look at his qualities we can tell him what we want from him, and then we can maybe change some of the small details. I tried to explain our idea to him. We will try to work on his strong points and see what he can do for us.
"It was important to do this deal quickly. We had the opportunity and in two days we decided to make the move. It was good for both clubs and both players, that is why it was so easy."