Rafa Benitez has suggested that his Newcastle United side could need to spend up to £75 million on new forwards this summer.
The Magpies put in a poor attacking display in a 2-0 defeat to Arsenal on Monday night, and the Spaniard pulled no punches in assessing the lack of quality on display.
As quoted in the Chronicle, he said: “The final third we have been speaking all season, the final third you have to spend £40m £50m, £75m.
“I think this kind of game is very similar. We were close, but it was about chances in the final third.”
OPINION
£75 million is a lot of money, especially for a club like Newcastle who are much more renowned for their financial prudence than their reckless spending sprees. To be fair to Benitez, he’s not sat there demanding that kind of money, he’s merely implying that for a side to realise the ambitions that Newcastle should have, that is the kind of outlay you would expect them to fork out. It’s very clever, because without causing any kind of direct friction with the board, he has once again reinforced the idea that the Toon Army need to be spending more this summer. Fans will pick up on that and begin to rumble with discontent, and Mike Ashley will, once again, come under a lot of pressure from the fanbase to put his hand in his pocket. Benitez is, in many ways a master manipulator, but it’s easy to forgive him when he clearly has the best interests of the club at heart like he does here.
