Former international right-back Danny Mills has shared with Football Insider that he expects Newcastle to struggle, should Mike Ashley allow the ‘world-class’ Rafa Benitez to leave Tyneside.
Today could be the gaffer’s final match in charge of the Magpies at St James’ Park, unless Ashley offers the Spaniard certain guarantees ahead of the upcoming transfer window to bring the current contract standoff to an end.
Benitez took charge of Newcastle in 2016 and has the admiration and respect of near enough everyone that follows our great club, and we all know how significant a loss his exit could be.
Mills, it seems, shares that feeling, as he has told Football Insider that Ashley has to keep Benitez, as there are not many managers out there who could come in and produce the same type of results he has managed.
“Newcastle have to keep Rafa Benitez,” Mills said. “He clearly loves the club, he clearly loves the area, he clearly loves being around the people and that’s why he’s stayed this long.
“He’s clearly got some sort of relationship with Mike Ashley that, however dysfunctional it might seem from the outside, it seems to work and he seems to accept that hand which he is given.
“If Newcastle lose Rafa Benitez it’s going to make it very, very difficult for the next manager coming in. He’s a world-class manager, he’s managed at top clubs all over the world, we know what he’s good at, the positions he’s got Newcastle in over the last couple of seasons is outstanding.
“I don’t think there are too many other managers in the world who could have done what he’s done.”
Since taking charge of the Magpies just over three years ago, Benitez has overseen 144 competitive fixtures, which have returned a points-per-game average of 1.48.
Those points also helped us to comfortably secure our automatic promotion back into the Premier League as Championship champions, before consecutively guaranteeing our survival in the top-flight with games to spare.
Going by Mills’ grim prediction, that won’t be the case in 2020, and we could be in a situation like Cardiff and Brighton are right now, by playing for our Premier League future heading into the penultimate round of fixtures.