Benitez calls a truce in ‘fight’ with Mags owner

Rafa Benitez says he’s no longer interested in fighting Mike Ashley over transfers.

Boss Benitez had hoped for a flurry of late transfer window arrivals, but the Magpies didn’t sign a single player on deadline day.

However, Benitez moved to draw a line under the summer ahead of today’s Premier League home game against Stoke.

And Benitez, for the moment, is determined to improve his team individually and collectively.

“I am very pragmatic,” said Benitez, who will be back in the dugout after recovering from the operation which led to him missing last weekend’s 1-0 win at Swansea.

“There’s a time to fight, and I was fighting to improve my team in the way I think we have to improve. Now it’s a time to help my team and improve my players. I must improve every single player. “I’ve had a couple of conversations with them this week who were out of the group before who were out of favour but now are here. “I said ‘look, I was clear before for these reasons, and it’s clear now that I will try to improve you to be sure that if you can play, you will play. “You have to be sure that if you work hard then you will have your chances’.

“The message is very clear. Before (the transfer deadline), I wanted to improve and I wanted to do things in what I thought was the right way. Now, it’s just to be sure that this group of players, they will be better.”

While Newcastle’s revamped scouting department is already scouting players ahead of January’s transfer window, Benitez is reluctant to look beyond the club’s next game.

The 57-year-old said: “At the moment, I’m just making plans for Stoke. That’s it.” Meanwhile, ex-Sunderland midfielder Jack Colback will train with Newcastle’s Under-23 side for the foreseeable future.

He was made available for transfer in the summer but didn’t secure a move.

Benitez said: “Jack, he knew my ideas before, and he knows my ideas now. It’s important for me to have a group of players, and the number of players, you can manage.”