Rafael Benítez has likened his protracted contract negotiations with Mike Ashley to the government’s seemingly interminable Brexit talks.
The Newcastle manager’s deal ends next month and while there is a mutual desire to renew it several sticking points have slowed discussions with the club’s owner. Things appear to have reached an impasse.
“Behind the scenes we were talking and now we’re in the same situation,” Benítez said. “We’re in the same position. I am waiting for answers. When you have negotiations you have to talk, then they give you this or that. It’s just part of the normal Brexit talks.”
Newcastle’s version of the Irish backstop is Benítez’s desire to blend youth and experience. To do so, he requires freedom to recruit players aged over 25, something Ashley has never been keen on as the owner believes such signings lack resale value.
“If you want to win trophies you need experience,” said Benítez as he prepared for Friday night’s game at Leicester, where a win would in effect banish Newcastle’s lingering relegation worries. “And at the same time as experience, you need the energy levels, determination and hunger that young players have.”
He created such a blend, to successful effect, in Italy. “We showed it’s important to find this balance. When I arrived at Napoli the president said: ‘We’ll sell Edinson Cavani.’ We sold him for around £60m to Paris Saint-Germain, then we reinvested the money to make a team that could compete in Europe. He had this vision and he did it really well.
“For around £60m we signed Pepe Reina, Gonzalo Higuaín, José Callejón, Dries Mertens and Raúl Albiol. Afterwards, we signed younger players and then we built a team. Eventually they sold Jorginho for £57m and Higuaín for £90m. Just with these two players we doubled the money. It’s about finding the balance between profit and investing.”
If those words represented a not so subtle appeal to Ashley, Benítez reinforced the point with some admiring comments about the Leicester side inherited by Brendan Rodgers. “Leicester have players with experience and good young players,” he said. “It’s a very good team.”
Benítez is considering switching from three to four at the back following the ruptured cruciate ligament suffered by Florian Lejeune last Saturday. The defender faces fast-track surgery on his left knee in Rome where a surgeon uses a pioneering technique that enabled Lejeune to make an unusually speedy recovery after his right knee required a cruciate repair last summer.
“In four months he was fine when normally it takes six or seven months,” Benítez said. “He was really unlucky that his other knee has the same injury now but hopefully in five months he should be fine.”