“He’s frustrated. The club’s in no-man’s land so maybe they don’t want to buy players. In terms of Rafa personally, he’s managed Liverpool, Napoli, Chelsea, Real Madrid. Big, big clubs – and Newcastle is a big club but they’re not investing and they’re not in a position where Rafa as a manager sees himself being. So he’s frustrated. There’s only so long this can go on.
“If they don’t buy players, whatever happens by the end of the season you can’t see him staying there too long. Rafa’s ideas are ‘I can manage big teams and I have done’. Once you announce that there’s a takeover that might be happening you straight away throw doubt over the whole football club, which is difficult. There’s no lack of effort from those players out there. They try their hardest. Rafa Benitez is a top manager who sets them up well, it’s a big club but at the moment they’re missing the X factor of two or three good signings that would have them a pretty comfortable mid-table team. And there needs to be – it’s Newcastle, a massive club.