Newcastle United hope to improve manager Rafael Benitez’s relationship with club owner Mike Ashley by offering the Spaniard a new contract.
According to The Times, the north east club are keen to extend the manager’s stay at St James Park, with the Magpies’ good start to life back in the Premier League a catalyst for the new deal.
Newcastle are currently in 10th place in the top flight, with nine points from six games, and they are already five points clear of the relegation zone after a solid start which included a 1-0 win away at the Liberty Stadium, a notoriously difficult place to go.
Benitez took over at Newcastle in March 2016, with only a short while to save the club from relegation to the Championship, which looked inevitable.
Even the Spaniard couldn’t keep the club in the Premier League that season, but he stuck with the Magpies as they entered the second tier of English football and steered them to the title, granting the club automatic promotion to the Premier League at the first attempt.
Benitez is certainly the type of manager the club need to continue picking up silverware; the Spaniard won La Liga twice with Valencia, before moving to Liverpool and winning the FA Cup, UEFA Champions League and UEFA Super Cup. He then won the FIFA Club World Cup with Inter Milan, the UEFA Europa League as Chelsea’s interim manager, Coppa Italia with Napoli during another spell in Italy and has been named UEFA Manager of the Year on two occasions.
