West Ham United have come out as likely suitors for Rafael Benitez’s services as the Spaniard has placed highly ambitious demands at the feet of Mike Ashley at Tyneside. The Newcastle United manager wants a £6m-a-year contract along with a £100m transfer budget. He also wants autonomous control over the club’s transfers going into the 2018/19 campaign.
However, there is reportedly a race going on between Benitez and Manuel Pellegrini for the spot. Pellegrini is highly rated by the West Ham board and it is being reported that they will want Pellegrini if they cannot sign Rafa.
As for Newcastle, it is highly unlikely for Mike Ashley to meet the 58-year-old’s demands since the track record clearly shows the opposite. Benitez has delivered a dream 10th place finish to the 2017/18 Premier League season, replacing all doubts of relegation with hopes of a European spot contention in the upcoming campaign.
However, Ashley has done very little to support the former Liverpool manager’s cause. Benitez has been vocal about the financial backing he would require to get the club to safety and yet he has done it with just three loan signings in the January window.
The Spaniard’s ambitions lie well beyond surviving a season in the English top-flight. He has an impressive resume which boasts of management services for clubs like Liverpool, Chelsea, Napoli and reigning European Champions, Real Madrid. He is a manager who has won almost every trophy other than the prestigious Premier League title.
You can guess what his career ambitions are at this point of his career even though achieving such a goal looks unrealistic with clubs like Newcastle or West Ham. Teams like Manchester City and Manchester United are on a league of their own with the amount of money they spray around.
It will take a lot of investment along with a long-term future planning to break into that sphere of being one of the country’s elites. There is obviously no fault in trying, as seen from Everton last term.
The Toffees spent close to £200m in the previous season and still came up short. Farhad Moshiri might be readying up another spending spree in the summer window to take the club to the next level.
With everybody adopting to the harsh reality in the current footballing scenario, Newcastle will have to start taking extra measures to ensure their place in Premier League.
The Hammers have gone through a troubling season as well, finishing close to the relegation scraps than they would have liked. They are in a similar boat as Newcastle as far as their talent pool goes.
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Benitez might demand a total overhaul to even consider the position since he is already settled at Tyneside. This might see him agree to move to London, where he certainly will be the better choice because of his current success with Newcastle United.
