Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez hasn’t rejected the opportunity to take over Zenit St Petersburg with an offer from the Russian Premier League side still on the table, according to the Daily Express.
The newspaper claim that the Magpies senior figure is currently locked in talks with the club’s managing director Lee Charnley over renewing his contract with the club.
The Daily Express report that while Benitez is expected to remain at the Magpies, he hasn’t given Zenit a definitive answer over their job offer, and remains on their shortlist of candidates.
OPINION
The Daily Express’ report is a worrying read yet at the time a reassuring one. The national newspaper clearly state that Benitez is expected to stay at St James Park, which is fabulous news, but their reveal that he still has an offer from Zenit is oddly troubling. It is believed that the Magpies manager is high on their shortlist of candidates to replace Roberto Mancini at the club, and as long as his new Newcastle contract isn’t signed, it will be cause for concern. However Magpies supporters will soon get news either way as the Russian giants want to make a decision regarding Mancini’s successor on Friday, which is only days away. It’s also a relief that at this current time, Benitez isn’t even the front-runner for the job as Sergei Semak is still the favourite according to the Express. Hopefully as Benitez is locked in talks with Charnley this is all one big clever ploy by the manager to use Zenit’s offer to get what he wants at St James Park.
