Boss keeping quiet over window pain
MANAGER HAPPY TO LIFT FANS’ SPIRITS – DESPITE PERSONAL EXASPERATION
WITH Newcastle United seemingly heading towards a fourth disappointing transfer window in succession, it would have been easy – and understandable – if Rafa Benitez had come out on the offensive against the club’s hierarchy during his first Press conference of pre-season.
Kenedy may have been re-signed on a season-long loan deal, while Martin Dubravka may have joined earlier in the summer and Ki Sungyueng been recruited on a free transfer from Swansea City, but even those three positive arrivals do not make up for the lack of business elsewhere.
A top-level striker is still to arrive, the acquisition of a No 10 this summer is now appearing increasingly unlikely, while no defensive reinforcements have been recruited yet either.
Newcastle fans, although buoyed by Kenedy’s return, have vented their frustrations at the club’s lack of summer spending on social media and in the pubs across Tyneside.
Many, yours truly included, suspected Benitez might do likewise – and, just as he did out in the Republic of Ireland last year, call on Mike Ashley to “keep his word” and make “every last penny the club generates” available as he had previously promised. But chief among Benitez’s many world-class talents is his ability to gauge the current mood among supporters – and respond with a reassuring, and welcome, message.
Undoubtedly beneath the surface Benitez has been left exasperated by Newcastle’s approach to the transfer window so far this summer; he wanted significant reinforcements to be signed, and he wanted them brought in early in order to maximise what he knows is a modest budget.
Yet what is there for Benitez to gain by calling out Ashley?
They have already met face to face over the past few weeks to discuss whether they can uncover common ground from which they can continue working together going forward - and Ashley is not about to be cowed by Benitez’s public utterances.
The Spaniard has been given the money the club generates to spend this summer, and that is not going to change just because he complains about it in public.
Benitez recognised that public protestations were not the order of the day. Instead, having remained almost silent for two long months as speculation over his own future raged, Benitez identified that Newcastle fans needed to hear a message of positivity from their manager – even if it did contain strong undertones of caution to the United hierarchy.
When he was asked about his future, Benitez stressed that he still envisaged a scenario whereby he could stay at St James’ Park for another “five to 10 years”.
Some may note that he uttered similar statements during the course of last season; yet, by the final few weeks of the 2017/18 campaign his tone had changed somewhat. By that stage Benitez would not even confirm that he would be manager come the start of August, and he even claimed he could no longer contemplate implementing a long-term plan at Newcastle due to the constraints he was working under. At that time, contract negotiations were in full flow and Benitez was trying to convince Newcastle to prove they match his ambitious plans for the future. Now, with talks over a new deal believed to have been deferred by the Spaniard until the transfer window closes, Benitez has lifted spirits among a fanbase who are becoming increasingly fearful that the Spaniard will have departed within 12 months. While that glimmer of hope for the future was offered to supporters, Benitez – who was sporting a lightweight cast on his hand, an injury which the Spaniard insists is “not serious”, and jokes is down to “being on the phone for too long trying to sign players” - made sure to underwrite that statement by making clear to the Newcastle board that he still needs to be convinced they can “do things that I imagine have to be done in a football club” in order for success to be attainable. The time may yet come for Benitez to ramp up the rhetoric in public once more. If Newcastle head into the final throes of the window without further significant reinforcements, Benitez may need to call out his owner.
The time may yet come for Benitez to ramp up the rhetoric in public once more