It is time to give Benitez cash to play with

WE havee always backed Rafa Benitez, Lee Charnley tells us blithely in one of his rare public utterances.

Aye, in Mike Ashley’s way you might have. Not in Benitez’s nor in the eyes of United fans.

Ashley has backed his team boss in the same way as he has backed you, Lee.

With grateful thanks for an acceptable job at the coalface but not with true financial reward.

Charnley’s basic pay, United’s accounts have revealed, has remained at £150,000 - which allegedly makes him the lowest paid of any Premier League chief executive/ managing-director. He is also the only director on the club’s board, by the way. In other words, the idea is to run a top club on the least possible outlay. Benitez is used to better than that. He has performed at the likes of Liverpool, Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Napoli where the financial lease had been slipped. This is somewhat unchartered territory for him and while he may see out the last year on his contract ,like a trussed-up Rafa Benitez has guided Newcastle to 10th – now he must be backed chicken in the local supermarket, he sure is not going to pen a new deal unless certain assurances are forthcoming.

Charnley told us: “We are moving forward assuming Mike Ashley will be the owner because what is the alternative?”

Precisely. There isn’t one at the moment.

That being the case, does Ashley continue his decade-long stance of rigid limitation or might he, just for once, look at the current situation and realise he has the rarest of opportunities to take up a business opportunity to his own benefit as well as that of the fans?

His club have finished 10th in the Premier League with a world-class manager at the helm and get gates of 52,000 for every home game. If they can climb above Leicester, Everton and Burnley next season – not inconceivable – United could be in Europe. Or they could easily win the FA Cup or League Cup. Alternatively they are just another tight financial squeeze away from a third relegation on Ashley’s watch, which Charnley admits two years ago could easily have ended up “a bloodbath.” That it did not is because Ashley gave the green light to gamble on bouncing straight back up. It worked a treat . . . so is it not worth taking another punt on Benitez and seeing where that might take us? Hey, everyone might surprised! John Gibson just be