The standard of football is drastically high in the Premier League compared to the Championship and despite an immediate return to the top flight conquering the Championship title, Rafael Benitez’s Newcastle United were tipped to struggle considering the frustrating transfer windows in recent past and the squad he inherited from Steve McClaren, the veteran Englishman, who drowned the Magpies a couple of seasons back and even a late appointment of the charismatic Spaniard could not script a survival.
Benitez, a man who achieved enormous managerial success at Valencia, Liverpool, Chelsea and Napoli previously, did not hide back and opted to take the responsibility despite being down to the second-tier and eventually led them towards a Premier League safety on a shoestring.
The Tyneside outfit have struggled under the ownership of Mike Ashley and the breakdown of takeover talks with Amanda Staveley has been a massive let-down for the supporters who were dreaming of heavy investments to achieve their long-lost elite status.
Despite the disputes with Ashley, all parties demanded the presence of Rafa Benitez for a much longer period as he is believed to be the right man to rebuild the team’s backbone as well as upgrade the standard of their academy ranks.
The Spaniard, mastermind of Liverpool’s ‘miracle in Istanbul’ back in 2005, is closing in on an incredible ‘top half’ finish with such an ordinary squad but, at the same time, needs funding to re-establish Newcastle’s legacy once more. He has only one year left on his current deal to expire but the management were keen on tying Benitez down for a lengthy period and finally saw the green light which makes them optimistic about a new deal for their stellar asset.
Although the gaffer is still in doubt over club’s ambition and aspirations, he is ready to accept the challenge once more and his future at St James Park is likely to be sorted pretty soon. Lee Charnley, Newcastle’s managing director, has opened contract talks with Benitez’s entourage and the manager also validated the report prior to his side’s Saturday afternoon encounter versus West Bromwich Albion.
“We have had conversations and we’ll have conversations next week. My representatives have talked with Lee Charnley.”
Ashley and co. have already damaged their reputation pretty much but believe the Benitez deal will fix their relationship with the supporters in coming days. However, every manager needs funding in such a money-driven football era and the owners must back him up meeting his demands and plea.
Rafael Benitez has once again proved his managerial masterclass at Newcastle United but a challenging campaign awaits at the same time where the expectations will be higher and dreams will be bigger when they will kick-start the 2018-19 football campaign in summer.
