Former Wales international Dean Saunders has stated that it is imperative that Newcastle United keep hold of manager Rafael Benitez.
Sky Sports reported on Tuesday that Chinese club Dalian Yifang are ready to make the Spaniard a £12million-per-year offer to become their new boss, and Saunders believes the Magpies have to convince him to stay.
“It’s just a rumour at the moment,” he told talkSPORT [19/06; 06:14]. “He’s done a brilliant job at Newcastle, there’s no argument about that.
“They need to keep him – Newcastle need to keep Benitez and they need to give him some money to go and spend and get the team closer to the top 10 than they are now.”
OPINION
Saunders hits the nail on the head, here. Benitez has galvanised the Newcastle supporters after years of torture under Mike Ashley and has them on the precipice of making a charge up the Premier League table, the only thing that stands in his way is indifferent ownership. That’s led to a situation where he has just 11 days remaining on his contract and so obviously rival clubs are going to make a move for him. Clearly he could go to China and make a shedload of money, and he might view that as a decent option after years of stress at St James’ Park. But Saunders is absolutely right – Newcastle need to keep hold of him. There’s no way that they could bring in a manager as talented as the Spaniard – excepting a successful takeover of the club – so it would be competitive suicide to allow him to fly the nest. Saunders is right, the Magpies bosses must keep their manager at the club no matter the cost.
