OPINION
The number one thing on the minds of the Newcastle United faithful these days – and for years now – is the future of manager Rafael Benitez.
The Spaniard has less than two months left on his current Magpies contract, with nothing yet put in place to keep him at the club beyond the end of June.
The supporters will surely be worried by his latest remarks, though, where he used a damning analogy to underline his frustration with the lack of transfer window ambition that Newcastle routinely show.
“If you look at Formula One, if you are at bends, you can fight. But in a straight line, they go past you,” he told the Daily Mirror. “You can be the best driver in the world, it doesn’t matter. So you drive in Monaco, where it’s bendy, then you have a chance.
“You can get to a certain level. After that, you cannot. Each [manager] has its own level of efficiency. It’s a question of doing things at the right moment and the right way.”
To be honest, Benitez is pretty spot on in what he’s saying there. He is currently in charge of a Haas, a team not bad enough to be relegated but not capable of challenging where their manager wants them to.
Benitez is realistic, he knows that Newcastle cannot challenge the top six sides at the head of the Premier League table. However, if we continue with the Formula One analogy, he would like to at least be a McLaren or Racing Point Force India, a team in the tier just below the top sides.
That should certainly be achievable for a club of Newcastle’s size, but the Magpies fans will be unconcerned by that at the moment. What will have them hiding behind the sofa is the message that Benitez was sending with his Formula One analogy.
He’s basically saying he’s dissatisfied with where the club are and that he needs to be given more tools and more resources if he’s going to stick around.
However, the likelihood of him getting what he wants from owner Mike Ashley feels remote at this moment in time. Hopefully, though, the Spaniard is able to reconcile himself with a slight push up the constructors championship next season, rather than a switch to a new team.
