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Rafa Benitez threatens move abroad in summer but if Mike Ashley willing to ‘compete’ will stay

5 years ago
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It is now nine weeks and nine matches to go before Rafa Benitez sees the end of the third year of three of his current contract.

The manager’s future coming increasingly under the spotlight as the end of the season draws ever nearer.

The will he stay or will he go, at least as important as the relegation issue, for many/most Newcastle fans.

Whilst we all hope Mike Ashley selling up would ensure Rafa Benitez staying, in the potential/probable absence of that, supporters increasingly look for other reasons as to why he could decide to stay.

As well as Ashley bending to his will in some respects, hopefully, Newcastle supporters have also had another reason to give them hope.

That is the belief/hope that Rafa Benitez won’t manage abroad because he wants to stay in England close to his family who are still based in the north west.

With the top six club jobs seen as unlikely for various reasons, Newcastle fans have questioned where else would be a possible fit if Benitez did leave Newcastle.

Everton is a no due to the Liverpool connection, Leicester have just appointed Brendan Rodgers, West Ham gave Pellegrini decent money to spend when appointed last summer and he is doing kind of ok. Though even the likes of Leicester and West Ham are maybe not the kind of clubs that Rafa would fancy either. The Leicester Premier League winning legacy has all but disappeared and would Rafa really find a good match with West Ham’s fanbase?

Anyway, Rafa Benitez has been asked about what will happen in the summer and whether he would find it tough to leave Newcastle United.

The Newcastle boss repeating what he said recently in a number of interviews with Spanish media in terms of his ambitions: ‘When you are happy in a place it’s not easy to then leave…but at the same time, you want to compete, you want to do well, you want to improve. It is not just that you will be a better manager, you want to be a better manager winning something. We have to be sure we can do that.”

As for limiting himself only to clubs in England if he does leave…’Obviously my priority will be to stay in England, because my family is here, so I would like to stay here if everything is fine. Can I go to another country? Yes. Why? Because I have done it in the past. I don’t have any problems to go [to another country] but I would like to stay close to my family.’

You would have to be a fool to think this is an empty threat.

Rafa Benitez is not going to stick around Newcastle United ONLY because it is handy for his family.

Like all of us the work/family balance is always exactly that, a balance.

However, Rafa said when he came here and has repeatedly said at regularly instances since then, that he sees/saw Newcastle United as a club that was a long-term project, a club where he could get it up nearer the top competing and trying to win trophies.

There is no way Rafa Benitez will stay at Newcastle United after this current contract if he doesn’t get written assurances that things will change.

Rafa Benitez asked if it would be tough to leave Newcastle United this summer:

“When you are happy in a place it’s not easy to then leave…but at the same time, you want to compete, you want to do well, you want to improve.

“It is not just that you will be a better manager, you want to be a better manager winning something.

“We have to be sure we can do that.

“Obviously my priority will be to stay in England, because my family is here, so I would like to stay here if everything is fine.

“I like the Premier League – I like the competition here.

“Can I go to another country? Yes.

“Why? Because I have done it in the past.

“I don’t have any problems to go [to another country] but I would like to stay close to my family.”

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