Benitez in new limbo
NEWCASTLE boss Rafa Benitez will report for work this morning with the club in a state of flux on and off the field.
Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Leicester left the Magpies still awaiting their first win of the season with two points from seven games.
The game was played against the backdrop of fresh takeover talk after it emerged former Manchester United and Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon is attempting to put funding in place to buy out owner Mike Ashley, who was at St James’ Park for a game for the first time since May 2017.
It is understood Kenyon was not given a price but invited to make an offer once his financial backers are in place.
Benitez has spent much of his time at St James’ Park bemoaning his lack of spending power with Ashley insisting he cannot afford to take the club to the next level.
RAFA BENITEZ is being asked searching questions on and off the pitch as Newcastle slump.
The blame game on Tyneside started before a ball had been kicked in the summer when Benitez trained his guns on Mike Ashley. The Spaniard spent a couple of months calling on the Toon owner to flash the cash, pointing out how limited his squad is.
Games against top sides were “expected” defeats, despite a top10 finish last season. Comments like “I know my squad” and “the fans are smart, they know” were designed to put pressure on Ashley.
But after five defeats in seven games and only four goals scored, it’s the turn of Benitez, once seen as a Messiah (right), to field flak.
In a corridor at St James’ Park on Saturday, after Benitez had become the first Toon boss to lose four successive home games at the start of a season, he was asked an obvious question: “Do you worry the players now believe they aren’t good enough because they’ve been told it so many times?”
The former Liverpool and Real Madrid boss answered: “No. It is difficult when you are working so hard and you are not getting results. It is difficult to keep confidence high. We need to start winning and it will change. There are so many things going against us, it is difficult to manage.”
Fans booed when Matt Ritchie was substituted. Ritchie appeared to mouth the question ‘what for?’ and now fans are wondering whether players are beginning to doubt their onceworshipped boss.
Ashley was at the game and his presence raised another question: was he there as a sign of truce or a pointer to more trouble?
Benitez is almost certainly safe for now but any other Tyneside boss over the years would be well into sacking territory after a run of one win in 13 games dating back to last season.
The club is more valuable with Benitez, the most illustrious manager United could possibly attract, at the helm.
And he was badly let down by Ashley, who promised him funds for a summer overhaul but who has kept the £20million profit the club made in the transfer market firmly in his pocket.
Add in to the mix takeover rumours, with ex-Chelsea and Manchester United chief executive Peter Kenyon said to be behind a £300m bid, and it’s clear why Newcastle right now seem a club drifting towards nowhere.
Ashley laughed as fans chanted at him their oft-heard chant: “Get out of our club.”
But he won’t be chuckling for long as every defeat is sending Newcastle closer to a relegation that would wipe tens of millions off his sale price.
Ashley sparked this mess by not letting Benitez invest more. Benitez’s perceived negativity, a tough early fixture list, misfiring strikers, and a fedup fan-base has worsened it. It’s a recipe for trouble and, on current evidence, relegation.
Jamie Vardy’s penalty and Harry Maguire’s towering header sealed Leicester’s comfortable win. But Foxes didn’t have to get out of second gear to collect three points.
That’s a measure of the mess Newcastle are in.