Benitez to wait until after January transfer window to discuss new Newcastle contract

Rafael Benitez will wait to see how owner Mike Ashley responds to his requests in the January transfer window before he reopens talks about a new contract to remain as Newcastle United manager beyond the end of the season.

Although Benitez was annoyed and deflated by the fact he was not allowed to spend any of the television money on players this summer, he is not ruling out staying at this stage.

His relationship with Ashley is a testing one, yet he will give the club one more chance to prove they want to back him financially in the winter window. If they do, he will be willing to discuss extended his current deal beyond June 2019.

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Newcastle signed seven players in the summer, but two of them – Kenedy and Saloman Rondon – are only loan signings, and they ended the window almost £20m in profit.

Ashley once again promised to allow Benitez to spend “every penny” the club generated in the Premier League back in May and claimed “he hoped Rafa would stay”, but grew wary of the Spaniard’s intentions when he refused to sign the extension offered.

Ashley’s view is that he would be foolish to allow a manager who intends to quit in less than 12 months lots of money for new players when he will not be there next season.

It is a short-term stance at best, given Benitez is the most popular and successful manager he has employed at St James’ Park and wants to stay if he is backed. At worst, it has created the circumstances for another relegation fight.

It has been a tense and fractious summer, which means Newcastle have not done the sort of recruitment that inspires confidence they will improve on last season’s tenth place finish.

Benitez, though, wants to move on quickly has even urged supporters to put the problems of the summer behind them.

Instead, he will plead with the club to loosen the purse string in the New Year. If that is agreed by Ashley, then the 58-year-old former Liverpool, Chelsea and Real Madrid manager, is likely to negotiate terms to extend his reign on Tyneside.

“All the things that have happened during the summer have to be forgotten,” said Benitez. “Then we can talk about that [contract], maybe, in April… we have plenty of time to talk.

“We have to concentrate on what we can have an influence on, and that is the team and preparation for games and whatever.

“We can talk about January and what is going on, but after January... Have we done what we had to do or not? Then you have more answers to your questions [about my future], but I think now it's too early.”