Mike Ashley makes last ditch ‘attempt’ to keep Rafa Benitez at NUFC – Laughable

According to a laughable ‘exclusive’ from The Sun, Mike Ashley has now promised Rafa Benitez a transfer kitty of over £100m if he agrees to sign a new three-year contract at the club.

They claim that Ashley is now ‘pressing’ Rafa to sign and end their ‘dispute’ after ‘summer stand-off’, but it’s a story that just does not add up.

Before we explain why (although I suspect you may not need one given this comes from The Sun), here’s what their story has had to say late last night:

‘MIKE ASHLEY will offer Rafa Benitez a three-year contract and a transfer war chest of more than £100million.

‘The Newcastle owner is pressing his manager to sign after a summer stand-off that has seen Benitez work under severe cash restraints.

‘Ashley is keen to end the dispute by getting the Spaniard to sign a fresh deal through until 2021.

‘And he is sweetening the offer with the promise of a major spend over the length of that contract.

‘Suspicion is so high on the Benitez side that he is yet to commit — despite the current state where Ashley will let him spend money only from sales.

‘If he does not sign this summer, it will leave him in a position where he is likely to run down his deal and get no further cash injections.’

Firstly, this hardly comes from a credible source.

Secondly, how on earth would a transfer budget of £100m over three years be enough to tempt Benitez into staying? That’s £33m a year and barely £17m per transfer window. This is NOT sufficient and with just 19 days left to do business, it strikes of desperation and falls well within the category of ‘too little too late’.

Ashley is also a proven liar, so why would Rafa even believe this? This is a man who stated just 9 weeks ago that Rafa would have ‘every penny’ to spend this summer – yet here we are with him being restricted to freebie’s and loans..

That Sun £100m war chest story was almost certainly placed by the Ashley/NUFC PR team to put pressure on Rafa. Club has history in trying to paint managers and players as bad guys. MA and co were proven to have intentionally misled the press and public in a court of law…

— KTDT (@KTD89) July 22, 2018

And finally, does this show that @IfRafaGoesWeGo has already had an impact? I highly doubt Ashley has actually made this effort to solve things with Rafa, but if he has it suggests he’s having a late change or heart (or at least trying to pull a PR stunt to make it seems as though he’s now ‘trying’).