Newcastle United will likely hand manager Rafael Benitez a summer transfer budget of £50million plus player sales, according to the Daily Mail.
The newspaper claims that Magpies owner Mike Ashley is happy for that money to be spent on two players, hinting that he is prepared for Benitez to break the club’s transfer record yet again.
The board want the Spaniard’s future sorted as quickly as possible having rejected overtures from other managers and are prepared to back him in the summer after securing a profit of £18.6million for the year ending June 2018.
However, Benitez is thought to want more than just a guarantee of funds in order to pledge his future to the club, as he seeks the trust of the board to sign the players he wants.
OPINION
This is a hugely significant update, and one that will fill Newcastle fans with joy. They will be sceptical, of course, but this is, in theory, what they have been wanting to see from the club. The Toon Army are keen for the board to keep Benitez around and then to back him so that he can take the club forward. It appears that they are now willing to do just that. £50million isn’t a transfer war chest by any means in Premier League terms, but it’s an improvement from what we’ve seen in the past, particularly the fact that Ashley is happy for Benitez to spend £20million+ on individual players. Miguel Almiron is the only occasion where that has ever happened at Newcastle so it’s good to see Ashley prepared to open his chequebook a bit. The board are, if this report is true, doing their upmost to ensure that Benitez remains on Tyneside. Honestly, you can’t ask for much more than that, can you? The fans now will be hoping and praying that Benitez accepts these terms and stays on, even though report claims that Benitez wants more than transfer funds in order to commit his future.
