I think it’s fair to say that Rafa Benitez has resurrected the supporting of Newcastle United for many. There are some who aren’t quite on board with it all though as the damage done by Mike Ashley in his attempted running of the club has been too much to bear for them.
With the season coming to a close, however, the topic on the tip of everyone’s tongue is whether Rafa can be ‘swayed’ into signing another contract.
Personally, I feel that there will be no big contract announcement forthcoming and why should there be with past history of Mike Ashley dithering around with transfers and what not.
Rafa Benitez has made no secret of the fact that he likes a project and he’s talked countless times as to the potential there is at this football club but it has come across in my eyes like he’s trying to educate Ashley or his sidekicks in that he is the man to grow the club if he’s given the right tools to work with. So far he hasn’t had them but done an able job against the odds.
Surely Rafa knows the score in that Ashley can’t be trusted with saying or insinuating one thing but doing or not doing the other with a very low net spend these past few transfer windows as proof of the pudding.
The flip side of this is surely Ashley realises that Rafa being at the helm of the club adds major value to the brand not to mention he has a massive clue in what he is doing and is not one of these other ‘fly by night’ managers we’ve had in the past that have had us flirting with relegation or allowing the charade of us pretending to compete in the league whilst collecting our appearance and prize monies.
The power lies with Rafa in these next few weeks and I reckon he’ll be wanting proof that Ashley will back him in the next transfer window or not regain on any building promises. If these terms are met by the time the window closes in early August then we could yet see an announcement once the new season starts but I wouldn’t hold my breath now for any development.
As always with us, the direction we go in lies with one man only and it’s seemingly foolproof but we’re the club where fools rush in so anything can happen.