Jamie Carragher has urged Rafael Benitez to quit Newcastle United as his talents are wasted at a club of such limited ambition.
Writing in a column in the Daily Telegraph, the high profile pundit explained why the Champions League-winning manager has to leave Newcastle and it is inevitable he will do so at the end of the season.
Carragher pointed out that the only reason Benitez has not walked out is he is on a lucrative contract and it would cost £6million to buy out the final year of the deal.
“For a coach of Rafa Benítez’s pedigree to be treading water with no prospect of doing anything beyond retaining Premier League status is incomprehensible,” explained Carragher in the Telegraph. “There is nothing more he can do at St James’ Park. Not without regime change, and that is not happening.
“The current arrangement is no more than a marriage of convenience, a short-term alliance with no future beyond the season.
“Mike Ashley can’t afford to sack Benítez. Why would he anyway since he is the best man to keep them up and it would only rile disillusioned fans even further?
“Rafa will see out contract because it would cost £6 million to buy out its final year. Newcastle are a big, prestigious club, Benítez is on a lucrative salary and he retains the overwhelming support of the St James’ Park crowd, but the reality is an institution limping along until an inevitable parting next summer.”
OPINION
Newcastle fans reading Carragher’s wise words will be nodding their heads in agreement, and also shaking them in anger at the same time. At Ashley for failing to provide such a proven manager with the resources needed to take the club to the next level, and for allowing a golden opportunity to slip away. There is no chance the next Newcastle manager will be of anywhere near the same calibre as Benitez, whose CV sparkles in a way that his immediate predecessors in the St James’ Park hotseat did not. There is no sense that Ashley is close to selling Newcastle despite formally putting the club up for sale last year. In a tiresome PR game of claim and counter-claim, negotiations with financier Amanda Staveley collapsed, and have not been reignited. Other possible buyers have baulked at a price tag that they believe does not reflect the value of a club whose assets are limited to the stadium and a fairly mediocre squad.