“Bring him home”, “Finish your project” – These Newcastle drool over links with ex-Magpie

Plenty of Newcastle United fans have been drooling over the prospect of former Magpies’ manager Rafael Benitez returning to St James’ Park.

According to The Telegraph, the Spanish tactician is keen to grasp hold of the reins once more, inheriting the hot seat from current boss Steve Bruce and bringing Manchester City defender John Stones and Chelsea midfielder Ross Barkley with him to Tyneside.

Benitez is still highly regarded at Newcastle after what had been a turbulent three years in charge and has been linked with the position if the club’s £300m takeover goes through.

Despite being relegated in 2016, the Spaniard brought us back into the top flight at the first time of asking and accumulated a points-per-game average of 1.48 from 146 games, as per TransferMarkt.

Benitez sadly left the role last summer after being unable to agree terms on a new deal and went to manage the Chinese Super League side Dalian Yifang.

Unsurprisingly, supporters were delighted with the report and made their feelings clear on social media. One fan pleaded with the club to “bring him home”, while another urged Benitez to finish his project.