Rafa Benitez joked in January that you did not have to venture far down Newcastle United’s list of transfer targets before you found players with one arm or one leg.
It drew the laughter intended and was said away from the television cameras and dictaphones, but the subtext was serious - the club simply weren’t prepared to invest to the level he demanded.
And that, amid a myriad of factors, is the key reason why he is no longer Newcastle manager after failing to reach an agreement to extend his contract, which expires on Sunday.
After realising he was getting nowhere with owner Mike Ashley, Rafa Benitez has walked
Come the end, the relationship had eroded beyond repair and club officials were even struggling to make contact with him at one point last week.
It was then that his exit became inevitable and a statement, on the say-so of owner Mike Ashley, was rushed out on Monday. The timing took Benitez by surprise and he was only informed of the news by a friend while at home on the Wirral.
In theory, there were still six days left to negotiate with the Spaniard, but Ashley’s instruction was to call time early and begin the search for a new manager.
The club had expected Benitez to stay when talks began last month and that is why no thought was given to a replacement until now. The sole focus, they say, had been on retaining Benitez.
It became apparent that Newcastle weren’t prepared to invest to the level he demanded
It is a travesty, however, that Ashley has allowed this to happen. Benitez did not want to leave, he wanted a reason to stay. He wanted the club’s ambition to match his own, a desire to be more than a team for whom survival was the primary aim. He repeatedly talked of ‘doing things right’ and, in turn, challenging for Europe.
Newcastle will argue that a plan was in place for improvement and that Benitez had to work within the club’s means - a transfer budget of £50million plus player sales for the season ahead.
Benitez, though, wanted closer to £100m and the power to offer weekly wages in excess of £100,000 for the first time.
He also demanded the freedom to spend as he saw fit and at the top of his list was West Brom’s Salomon Rondon, the loanee who was Newcastle’s player of the season. The club disagreed on the grounds of the striker costing £16.5m and turning 30 in September. Managing director Lee Charnley told Benitez that the model was to sign players under 25 with sell-on value.
That is all very well on a balance sheet, but when a manager of Benitez’s standing deems that an older player is the best man for the role, then surely he deserves that backing?
That the club
