Newcastle United Fan View: Half a billion transfer war-chest for Rafa Benitez

Saturday’s victory over Crystal Palace saw Newcastle rise to the heady heights of the top six in the Premier League, but even a win couldn’t turn the fans away from dreaming over an imminent takeover and the hope of a transfer war-chest to rival the biggest clubs in the world.

The main name in the frame is Amanda Staveley – thought to be quite far down the line in discussions and whilst a formal offer to buy the club from Mike Ashley hasn’t been made yet, talk in the press seems to think her move to buy the club is more of a matter of when not if.

With a takeover comes all kind of uncertainty and, like with anything at our club, us Newcastle fans can’t ever get too optimistic about things. The Staveley link is positive but we’re still weeks, if not months, away from any real change at the top. So, for now, we must just carry on what we are doing; supporting the team, supporting Rafa and going about business as normal.

A news report on Sunday morning from the Express has claimed that should Staveley take over, prior to the January transfer window, she will be given £500m to spend over the next two windows. That is game-changing money; that is allowing Rafa to have a world-class player in every position and whilst I am sure that figure has just been plucked out of thin air, I do wonder what the current bunch of players are thinking? Are they hopeful of a takeover, do they see it as a positive thing? Or, do they start to fear for their NUFC careers? As a fan, it is exciting and I am confident that the group of players we have are level-headed, grounded and completely focused.

The game on Saturday was far from a classic but I said to my mate at the game that this is the kind of game that Rafa Benitez does not lose. Both teams cancelled each other out, but Benitez won the tactical battle, bringing on Mikel Merino towards the end of the game and watching the young Spaniard somewhat fortuitously score the winning goal with his head from Matt Ritchie’s wonderful corner.

Yes, it was a scrappy game, it wasn’t pretty to watch, but under Pardew, McClaren or Carver, we would have lost that.

Newcastle now have a week and a couple of days break until we play our next match, away at Burnley. Burnley have produced some good performances and results this season and with Chris Wood up front, they look a real threat – I will be more than happy to leave with a point!