Rafa’s focused on Toon future
RAFA Benitez admits he wants to see progress in the last week of the transfer window – but despite suggestions he will walk if things don’t go his way he seems fully focused on the job in hand.
The Newcastle United boss has made it clear that the squad players that have been told they are unwanted must move on and allow the club to bring in new blood in the next few days. Benitez has been accused of causing a “negative” atmosphere at United in the last two weeks with Joey Barton, Jamie Carragher, Gary Neville and now Graeme Souness – who believes that Rafa could walk out soon – all having their say on the Newcastle situation. But the key message to come from Benitez’s latest Press call was he was prepared to “carry on” as Toon boss.
But Benitez told Chroniclelive: “September 1 will be different. We will then work with these players, in the mean time if we can get some points against West Ham everybody will be happier and it will be easier for me.
“If not we will carry on because this team will improve. They are very good professionals, they work hard and they will improve.
“If you are stronger as a team, and approach each game strongly – you will have more chances to win.
“I would still say we are looking to bring players in and move players out.
“I think the September 1 will be totally different and hopefully go to this day with three points on the board.”
Benitez then, perhaps significantly, followed those comments up with: “If not, I still have confidence we will improve a lot.” United’s situation this summer has not been helped by a clutch of players who don’t want to leave for lower wages. Tim Krul, Achraf Lazaar, Massadio Haidara, Grant Hanley, Jack Colback, Henri Saivet and Emmanuel Riviere are all available for transfer. Some of those players were told early in the summer they weren’t going to be played this season but Daryl Murphy was one of the few to make a decision to leave for football reasons when deciding to switch to Nottingham Forest. Benitez said: “I could use the example of Daryl Murphy – he was a fantastic player for us. “We needed to sign players like Daryl with experience to help us get promoted and get up at the first attempt last year. After it (promotion) was done everybody knew these players would have to go. “It’s not that you are changing your squad just for the sake of it, we knew that some of these players were doing a great job in the Championship but after they had to go.” Benitez has also been lumbered with players like Saivet and Riviere who weren’t signed by him. He said: “Other than that we have players from the past that have big contracts. Still they are around the club, that is a situation that we have and we have to deal with it.” Newcastle’s losing start to the season has resulted in Benitez being the target of some criticism from pundits. But he shrugged off the negative comments that were fired his way after
Nobody was expecting us to come from the Championship to turn up and start winning game after a game
the loss to Huddersfield.
He said: “It’s normal. When you lose games people can talk about you. But we are doing exactly the same as before the Tottenham game, trying to win.
“Tottenham was difficult but they were second in the Premier League last season.
“You could see we were well organised and the understanding was good then we lost a player and we had two injuries.
“We were playing with 10 players, to lose that game could be normal in any circumstances, it’s nothing to do with negativity.
“Then you go to Huddersfield. They were over the moon, they’d won 3-0 and the atmosphere was fantastic for them.
“We put in a normal performance. I wouldn’t say it was a disaster because it wasn’t. “Huddersfield did not have too many chances, we were organised and tactically the team knew what to do. “We made a couple of mistakes in defence and we had three or four chances that we did not take. “The problem we have is with injuries and missing Jonjo. “We also a little uncertainty around the place with incomings and outgoings but we will know where we are on September 1. “To lose at Huddersfield you have to be disappointed – but it can happen.” Benitez now hopes that Newcastle players will emerge stronger from their disappointing first couple of games in the Premier League.
He said: “We have to be sure that we are learning from our mistakes.
“It was always going to be a learning process and we are learning now.
“We can’t make mistakes (defensively) because we will pay for them and we have to create more chances, it is the only way you can guarantee wins.
“We have lost twice and yes I am really disappointed, but it’s Premier League football and nobody was expecting us to come from the Championship to turn up and start winning game after a game, especially when one of the games is Spurs – and when your squad is not finished.
“Other teams have money from the Premier League last year and also most other teams had 70% of their squad done.
“For us, it was different because we had to make many changes.”