Slavisa Jokanovic is looking forward to locking horns with Rafa Benitez on Saturday when Fulham visit Newcastle, but believes the Spaniard's past glories count for nothing.
Benitez has won the Champions League with Liverpool back in 2005 on that famous night in Istanbul, but Jokanovic has already beaten the Newcastle boss this season courtesy of a 1-0 victory in August at Craven Cottage.
The Fulham boss was, however, extremely respectful of what Benitez has achieved in the game, but insists those trophies are now in the past, and despite the Champions League being an important competition, it means nothing come 3pm on Saturday.
He said: "Rafa Benitez is a big name in our competition. He's a good coach who has won the Champions League, but my job is to beat him.
"We started the season with two winners of the Champions League in this division, with Robert Di Matteo and with Rafa Benitez, it's a very important competition.
"He's a great manager and successful but the past doesn't exist and we are concentrating on the next game in front of us which is the present.
"It's a great chance for my players to test themselves against a great Championship team.
"We can forget everything that is behind us, Rafa's past is nice and I am sure he has enough experience to know what it is important in this moment, which is Fulham for them and Newcastle for us and I'm sure we'll be ready and so will they."
Fulham visit St James' Park with the home side sitting pretty at the top of the division, while Fulham are in seventh and are gunning down the play-off places, and Jokanovic has admitted for once, his side won't worry too much about the possession stats.
He added: "They are the top team in the Championship and they're very organised.
"We aren't going to worry about possession, it'll probably be the only time someone will have more possession than us but we aren't interested as much in this game.
"They're going to try and attack and press us, and try to attack with fullbacks and attack with the long ball and we have tried to prepare for this."
