OPINION
Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley cannot risk playing chicken with the club’s future and must act fast to ensure that Rafa Benitez stays at the club.
The Magpies’ bright future is clearly tied to keeping the experienced Spanish manager at the club for the foreseeable future, as Benitez has shown that he can bring success to St James Park.
The proven Premier League boss was able to guide his side to a 10th-placed finish in the recently concluded season and he was able to do that without Ashley having to heavily invest in the transfer market.
However Benitez clearly wants to guide the club to the brighter future it deserves and Ashley needs to dig into his pockets to allow that to happen.
The current Magpies boss has been very opened about simply wanting clarity about the resources that will be available to him, as reported by Sky Sports, in order to see if he can achieve his goals at the club.
Therefore Ashley needs to act now to reassure that the manager will be handed the right tools as clearly the owner is aware of the need to keep him, as he publicly released a statement four days ago, as reported by Sky Sports, to share his desire to keep Benitez at the club.
Yet no official progress towards the manager staying has been announced and West Ham have reportedly upped their pursuit of Benitez, as they want him to be their boss.
The Daily Mirror reported on Thursday that the Hammers were set to make a move for the Spaniard shortly as they wanted to announce their next manager by the end of next week.
When this report broke, while worrying, it was hard to see Benitez being keen as it’s like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.
David Gold and David Sullivan, the Hammers co-owners, don’t exactly have glittering reputations for helping their managers and David Moyes was left worse for ware after the London-club failed to do the needed transfer business in January to make his job easier.
So there was no reason to suggest that Benitez would even give the Hammers the time of day if they came calling.
However the London Evening Standard, who are a reliable source, published a report on Thursday afternoon which claimed that Benitez was interested in the job opening at the London Stadium.
The newspaper reported that the Spanish boss would be willing to move down south if the right offer was made to him, something West Ham are capable of doing.
Therefore with Benitez’s presence being key to the Magpies’ future, the latest report confirms Ashley cannot risk playing a game of chicken over waiting to see if the manager’s demands will be lowered as the Hammers could realistically steal Benitez away.
