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Although Benítez hints that Liverpool's different ambitions mean it is harder for youngsters to make it through to his first team than with their neighbours, Rodwell, 18, who comes from nearby Southport, certainly could have made a difference for Liverpool this season and is already being talked about as a £20 million player.
The news that Rodwell was pursued by Liverpool is surely a topic that will be brought up by Everton fans in what has become an increasingly vitriolic fixture over the past decade.
Rodwell slipped through the net a couple of years ago and further hesitation also meant that Liverpool missed out on Aaron Ramsey, who was whisked away by Arsenal when he decided it was a time to leave Cardiff, and Wigan's Republic of Ireland under-21 midfielder James McCarthy, rated as one of the brightest young talents in Europe when he had a trial at Anfield as a 16-year-old playing for Hamilton.
As well as Rodwell, Everton manager David Moyes, who brought Wayne Rooney through at the start of the decade, also has local lads Leon Osman, Tony Hibbert and Victor Anichebe in his squad, while Liverpool's Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher have now been joined by home-grown youngsters Jay Spearing, Stephen Darby and Martin Kelly in Benítez's first-team squad.
The desire for more control over the club's academy at Kirkby was a key negotiating point before Benítez signed a new five-year contract last season and Frank McParland and José Segura, who helped nurture Cesc Fabregas, Andrés Iniesta and Everton's Mikel Arteta during eight years at Bracelona, were appointed academy director and technical manager in May.
Almost 20 staff left over the summer and Kenny Dalglish, who persuaded Evertonians Robbie Fowler and Steve McManaman to sign for Liverpool during his spell as manager, returned to the club in a senior role in the academy in July.
It will take years for Benítez's changes to have their full effect but he is confident that Merseyside's next Gerrard or Rooney will emerge as world stars wearing red.
"When you sign with your club for five years and you know that you don't have the same money available as some of the top sides in England, and you want to compete, you know that you have to produce local players," Benítez said.
"We had to have some impact on the academy and now we have changed a lot of things and it is going really well. I now have influence and people there I trust. We all have the same philosophy. It is no longer a first team philosophy and then a different academy philosophy. The first team has to win, I'm not stupid. I know with more Carras and Gerrards it will be better and easier.
"The difference, also, is expectation levels, what you are looking for. To win the Premier League? Or just to stay as high as possible? That means that to bring local players at the level of Liverpool is always more difficult.
"You get one Gerrard each 10 years and you have to produce more players of the level of Carra. That means that you can manage the squad and it will be easier. It's something very simple to say but it's not an easy thing to do because you need time."
Derbies are never under-hyped but Sunday's meeting at Goodison Park has a pivotal feel to it. Defeat is unthinkable for both teams, whose supporters can hardly believe the way their respective seasons have started.
While both managers retain the wide-spread support of their fan bases, to be a couple of goals behind with 20 minutes remaining could be the catalyst for the outpouring of some real frustration for the fans.
The heavy spending of Manchester City and Tottenham has made another Everton challenge for the top four harder than ever and their injury list, which Moyes refuses to use as an excuse, has bitten hard week after week. 
There may be serious doom and gloom on Merseyside about the state of football in the area but Everton defender Joseph Yobo says he can keep it all in perspective.
Liverpool were dumped out of the Champions League during the week and Everton's season continues to go from bad to worse after losing 3-2 to Hull City on Wednesday. But Toffees defender Yobo can see the bigger picture following his brother's horror kidnap last year.
Armed gunmen in Nigeria swooped on his younger brother Norum and held him for 12 days.
Yobo feared that Norum was dead so is now just relieved to have him alive and well.
And ahead of today's clash with Liverpool, that is earmarked as crucial for both clubs, Yobo claims that an experience like that helps keep the 90 minutes at Goodison Park in perspective.
He said: "At the end of the day it is just a game.
"What happened to my brother was a bad experience for me.
"It is not nice what is happening in Nigeria."
An emotional David Moyes fears he has taken Everton as far as he can.
He has delivered a grim warning to his board by baring his soul about his long-term future at the club.
The Everton boss says he wants to fight on - but only if he sees evidence that the club can make significant strides on and off the pitch to fulfil his ambitions.
And frustrated Moyes recognises that will never happen unless the club's pursuit of investment is successful.
He said: "The one thing I wanted to do at Everton was somehow make progress every year and take a couple of steps up the table.
"I have a lump in the back of my throat, I am choking, because I am finding it hard to say we are making progress.
"Getting the new training ground was big progress. Our league positions and qualifying for Europe has been progress.
"Getting to a semi-final one year and a cup final the next year and the talk about getting a new stadium, I saw that all as progress.
"But that has come to an end and we are not doing so well in the league. It is the word progress that worries me more than anything. I want to be involved in a football club that makes progress.
"It would be Everton first of all where I want do this. I am ambitious, I want to be in the FA Cup final like last year, and I want to be challenging near the top of the league.
"I want to be going into derby games feeling this is an even chance.
"I want to go to places such as Old Trafford thinking, 'If we are on form, we can beat them'. Last year there were periods when I thought we were more than a match - but at this moment we are not.
"I want to be able to come back to Everton in the future. I don't want fans to say, 'We want rid of him' or 'His time is up'.
"If that is the case, I would say give it to somebody else. All my family go to the games. I don't think there is any hiding going on.
"The rumours will keep coming because people see us as finding it hard to keep spending to keep up with the Jones's.
"I have a great relationship with chairman Bill Kenwright and I have a lot of trust in him.
"Does that mean if I'm not doing well I should say to the chairman, 'Maybe my time is up?' In the same breath I would say to him, 'Come on we need more investment'. I think that is why the chairman has been blatantly honest and said he is trying to get money for the manager and for the football club."
Moyes' candidness underlines why he and opposite number Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez went head-to-head on Sunday with far more than three points at stake.
Despite being regarded as their club's greatest managers in two decades, it is their legacy and reputation they are now trying to protect.
None of the previous 180 Merseyside league derbies has been played under such duress on and off the park. Economically fragile, ravaged by a succession of injuries, bereft of new homes and with the future of both managers under daily scrutiny, the Merseyside clubs will meet with their season, their history even, at a junction.
The rejection of Everton's £400million stadium move to Kirkby and revival of the groundshare debate was a reminder of the vulnerability of both sides in an era where billions talk.
While Moyes is concerned, Benitez delivered a more upbeat vision of the future - unshaken by recent setbacks.
He said: "I don't expect the fans to be happy when their team are not winning games.
"Yet I am sure we will finish in the top four - maybe higher than fourth - and when I spoke to the players they told me the same.
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