According to the Telegraph’s Luke Edwards, Rafa Benitez is yet to be told his budget for this summer’s transfer window, but claims that Mike Ashley is expected to hand the Spaniard £50m – plus money generated from player sales.
With talks over his future dragging on, it has been suggested recently that the boss is still unaware of the transfer budget Ashley will offer him this summer. The Telegraph reckon it’s ‘around £50m’ plus players – although we had heard this all before with Mike!
Things *should* be different now after confirmation that we’ll take in a total of £123m across the Premier League season, however we all know that what Mike Ashley says and what Mike Ashley does are often two different things.
Here’s what Luke Edward’s latest piece for the Telegraph has had to say on the matter:
“Telegraph Sport understands the Spaniard has still not been told exactly how much money he will have to spend in this window. That has infuriated and exasperated him.
“The ball park figure for the transfer budget is believed to be around £50m, with extra funds generated through player sales.”
One underlying issue behind all of this is how Benitez gets to manage that money, his power to make decisions and the way the club approach and sanction transfers. This seems to be one of (if not THE) biggest problems for Benitez and something he wants assurances on.
As I recently heard during a podcast with the Times’ George Caulkin, Benitez wants the power to spend his budget on whoever he sees fit – even if that means spending a big £25m chunk of it on a 30-year-old striker (something Ashley would tend to be against).
If £50m plus player sales is true then I actually think we’d be able to buy wisely this summer (provided he gets assurances on all of the above). With Mitrovic, Mbemba, Colback, Sels, Saivet and more all set to be sold, he could easily have in excess of £70m? Well, that’s the logic behind it anyway..
We’ll see what happens, but I do feel that, for Rafa, it’s more about power, communication and the way the club do business than money at this stage.
could have about 70 million if Ashley gives rafa 50 million. we could get 20 for mitro easily
Tom Dodd(Quote)