Leicester City are keen on Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez, according to the Chronicle.
It is understood that the Foxes consider the Spaniard to be a potential replacement for current manager Claude Puel, with the feeling increasingly being that the Frenchman has lost the dressing room.
The one time Premier League champions have not won since New Year’s Day and currently sit ninth in the table.
However, the report claims that Benitez would not be interested in leaving St. James’ Park before the end of the season.
OPINION
This would be a disaster for Newcastle. Benitez has pretty much been the only thing that has prevented them from slipping under in recent years, and if he were to leave it is fairly safe to say that whoever came in as his successor would not be anywhere near as talented as him. There is some encouragement to be taken, however. This is not the first time the Foxes have been linked with Benitez, and the Spaniard is clearly enamoured with the Magpies and their fans. The suggestion that he would be willing to give Newcastle the opportunity to retain his services is promising, but things are far from rosy on Tyneside. The issues surrounding Mike Ashley’s ownership have been well-documented and much maligned, and unless some signings are made in the last few days of the current transfer window, it would be easy to foresee a situation in which the manager walked away at the end of the campaign out of sheer frustration.