OPINION
At this point, Newcastle United supporters are past hoping for a swift takeover of the club. Instead, their thoughts are chiefly around the future of manager Rafael Benitez.
However, Mike Ashley’s continued failure to find a buyer for the Magpies might actually help keep Benitez around. Or, at least, that’s the view of Spanish football expert Guillem Balague.
“If I was Newcastle, even if I had to sell the club, I’d rather keep Rafa Benitez in the club,” he said during a video on his YouTube channel [01:21]. “But things are quiet at the moment.”
Obviously Balague isn’t a decision maker at Newcastle, but it seems likely that his line of thinking isn’t far off what’s going on in Mike Ashley’s head at the minute.
He’s made it clear for some time now that he wants to sell the club. However, he will also be aware that he has a much better chance of attracting potential buyers with a manager of Benitez’s calibre in charge.
Without Benitez the value of the club does decrease slightly, that’s for sure. A new owner would love to come into a club the size of Newcastle and have a manager as good as Benitez eagerly waiting for them.
So the Newcastle supporters will likely have their fingers crossed that Balague’s takeover/Benitez verdict proves correct. At this point, the majority of them would rather have Benitez kept in charge than him leave and the club then be taken over.
Obviously their ideal scenario would be to keep Benitez and have a takeover completed. But until the latter seems like a genuine possibility, all they’ll be doing is hoping that Benitez stays at the club.
Luckily, if Balague’s assessment of the situation proves accurate, Ashley probably won’t countenance the manager leaving as long as he’s looking to sell the club, which would mean that Benitez won’t be departing anytime soon.
