Mike Ashley took £10m out of Newcastle in summer despite pledge to back Rafa Benitez in transfer market

Mike Ashley, the Newcastle United owner, took around £10 million out of the club over the summer, depriving manager Rafa Benitez of much-needed transfer funds.

Telegraph Sport can reveal the amount Ashley took out of the business as he suddenly decided to take back some of the £144m he has provided the club in the form of interest free loans.

Ashley had promised in an official statement back in May - as he had done 12 months earlier - that Benitez would get "every penny" the club generated in the Premier League, as he claimed he wanted the Spaniard to stay long term.

READ MORE: Ronaldo could be at United if club had coherent transfer policy

READ MORE: Ozil is absent in matches that Arsenal are not dominating, claims Souness

But instead he has decided not to stick to that pledge, with Benitez's refusal to sign a new deal thought to have been one of the reasons for him doing so.

The club refused to comment when asked to confirm £10m had been repaid to Ashley and to explain why it was taken out of the club given the lack of financial support for Benitez in the transfer market.

Sources have indicated that the money repaid was not meant to be a long-term loan from the owner. However, although £10m is not a large amount for a Premier League football club, it would have made a significant difference to Benitez’s transfer budget.

Newcastle’s most expensive signing in the summer was striker Yoshinori Muto, who cost £9.5m from Mainz. They made an overall profit of about £28m, the most in the top flight.

The news will inflame an already tense situation at St James’ Park with some supporters on social media discussing whether to organise a boycott of a home game before Christmas to put pressure on Ashley ahead of the January window.

Benitez is coming under pressure after Newcastle's winless start to the season but it is understood he had repeatedly warned, both in a face-to-face meeting with Ashley and several conversations with managing director Lee Charnley, that a relegation battle was unavoidable if he was not given more funds to strengthen his squad.

Ashley instead ordered the Spaniard to stick to a strict budget despite receiving two chunks of television money totalling more than £100m. Indeed, Benitez was informed he would have to sell in order to buy and he was also told to make room on the wage bill to accommodate his targets.

It was a difficult situation made worse when the Magpies ended the summer around £20m in profit following the sale of striker Aleksandar Mitrovic to Fulham.

Although Charnley stressed that they made several bids that would have broken the club’s transfer record – the £16.5m paid to Real Madrid for Michael Owen in 2005 – they could not get any of those deals done for a variety of reasons.

Sources have indicated that some of those players did not want to sign for the club, with the doubts about Benitez’s long term one of their concerns, but that is disputed by others involved in the process.

Benitez has struck a more conciliatory tone in his comments about Ashley since the owner took the team and staff out for a meal earlier this month. That was designed to heal wounds and to get the two men talking again, but the true test of their relationship will come in January.

Newcastle’s 1-0 home defeat to Brighton leaves the Magpies bottom of the table and, as things stand, they are heading for their third relegation from the Premier League since Ashley bought the club in 2007.