Magpies are lucky to have a boss like Rafa
Newcastle United are very lucky to have Rafa Benitez as their manager.
Their fans know it. I just hope owner Mike Ashley knows it, too.
It’s no fluke that the Magpies look like finishing the season comfortably in mid-table, after a net spend of just £10m in the last two transfer windows.
That’s purely down to the Spaniard’s coaching on the training ground, expertise in game management and canniness in the transfer market.
Since the turn of the year, they’ve lost just twice – at Manchester City and Liverpool – beaten Manchester United and Arsenal, and taken points from all their relegation rivals.
Benitez had zero funds in the January window, but managed to put together loan deals for Chelsea winger Kenedy and Sparta Prague keeper Martin Dubravka. Both have been key in the surge from the fringes of the relegation zone to safety.
But the danger is that Ashley, and his board, will look at what Benitez has done with virtually nothing as proof that a good manager doesn’t need money.
The club’s overwhelming priority is to stay in the Premier League. If they believe that Benitez can keep them there on the tightest of budgets, then it’s likely to mean that he won’t get any money this summer either.
Benitez has not been slow to point out that he’s been operating with one hand tied behind his back.
So far, he’s reluctantly accepted the lack of financial backing, albeit at times with little good grace.
But that’s not going to last forever because Benitez is an ambitious man.
He might have accepted the job at St James’ Park as part of his efforts to remind everyone in England of his abilities after his flop at Real Madrid. But he’s never been slow to keep his career moving.
The club’s high bar might be mid-table comfort every season, but it won’t be Rafa’s.
He’s a Champions League, Europa League and FA Cup-winning manager. He’s used to being at clubs who regularly win trophies.
He is not going to settle for a constant struggle merely to remain mediocre.
In fact, I’d be surprised if one or two clubs in England – and abroad – who are planning managerial changes this summer haven’t noted what he’s done this season. Maybe even those in control at Arsenal.
Rafa has an unbelievably strong relationship with the Toon Army, who know better than anyone that what he has achieved with a squad made up largely of Championship-standard players.
But even those loyal fans would understand if he declared he’d had enough of the penny-pinching and wanted to start winning trophies again.
He could do that at Newcastle, of course. But only if he’s allowed to buy better quality players.
Past experience of Ashley’s working model suggests that won’t happen.