Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez appeared on Spanish radio station Cadena Ser on Monday night to talk about Newcastle’s promotion to the Premier League.
Speaking for six minutes on Manu Carreno’s programme El Larguero (the full interview in Spanish can be found here), Benitez talked about his transfer budget for next season. This could have been lost in translation and the Shields Gazette are saying Rafa has not been told what his budget will be yet, but it seems he did mention the £70m figure. Here is the quote (taken from Goal.com.fr):
“This is a difficult championship, we play two games a week and we have to recover, the Premier [League] is something else, we will have to change the team a little, we will have a budget of 70 million pounds.”
Of course, it is difficult to anticipate what the latest developments in terms of the raid by HMRC will have on Benitez’s future and Newcastle’s summer transfer plans, but it seems quite clear cut from the quote above that Newcastle have already given him a budget to work with.
Benitez also reiterated on Cadena Ser that he is not entirely certain about what may happen in terms of his own future. When asked about continuing at Newcastle, the Spaniard replied:
“One never knows what lies around the corner, that’s the way football is.”
