CARDS ON THE TABLE
NEWCASTLE United chiefs are understood to be ready to offer Rafa Benitez the contract extension he wants - providing he is prepared to wait for certain requests.
The mood on Tyneside remains sceptical within the club’s fanbase and a range of protests from the Magpie Group have been planned for the next two months.
However, Benitez’s future is one thing which could at least be salvaged from the club’s depressing start to the new season.
Benitez is keen to have more financial power at St James’ Park but also wants to make changes at the club’s academy and wants a better training ground. The Sunday Sun has learned all three of those conditions could be met over a five-year period - which would be the course of the initial contract offered to Benitez in June.
However, talks have taken place since then and there has been a healthy dialogue between managing-director Lee Charnley and Benitez in the meantime.
The Spaniard indicated as much at his weekly press conference on Friday but fans have been cautious about fresh suggestions he is ready to stay on at United. Pers o n a l terms are not the issue for Benitez a n d United are prepared to give him the salary agreed back in the summer. However, Benitez will want to see Ashley loosen the purse strings in the next transfer window with January potentially an acid test of relations between the Spaniard and the club’s top brass. It remains to be seen how much Newcastle will spend in the winter window but the club will spend November whittling down a short-list of targets - and we understand a clutch of strikers around Europe have been checked out in the last two or three weeks.
Ashley was again in the crowd at St Mary’s Stadium yesterday as he attended his fifth game in a row.
His return to the scene at Newcastle is understood to be down to his own personal desire to improve the relationship between himself and Benitez, Charnley and the squad in general.
Ashley was disappointed things turned toxic behind the scenes in the summer when the players were involved in a bonus row - but feels the tension has eased since the club’s recent pizza summit in Ponteland.