Speaking to Sky Sports following yesterday’s stunning win at St James’ Park, Rafa Benitez has simply asked the club to start doing the ‘right things at the right time’ – saying he is ‘trying’ but will ‘see how far’ conversations go regarding his future at NUFC.
The gaffer was all smiles throughout the interview and seemed quite relaxed (no doubt partly due to the fact his side had just mauled Chelsea 3-0!), but insisted we still have a ‘lot of things’ to do and improve upon despite securing a top 10 finish on our first season back in the top flight.
Here’s what he had to say to Sky:
“I have another year of my contract, and we are trying to do our best to do what we have to do to go forward.
“There are conversations and we will see how far we go.”
“It is really close relationship (between me and the fans), I said from day one they were pleased with our work, trying to do our best and they can see that.
“We still have to do a lot of things, but we know that we have plenty of room for improvement. We just try to do the right things at the right time, that’s it.”
He was asked what he and the club need to do to take Newcastle United forward and his response was quite clear and simple – “We just try to do the right things at the right time – that’s it”. This is quite a telling line for me.
As several journalists have stated over the past week, it seems that Rafa’s biggest problem is the mistakes we make and the way we run our football club, not the amount of money he’s handed each window.
We need to start doing the right things. Giving him control, acting quicker, communicating and learning from the mistakes we (Ashley and co.) have made since he took over.
I don’t think he’s demanding silly sums of money, I think he just wants the club to be ran competently and consistently.
