Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez has confirmed that he is expecting Mike Ashley to attend crunch talks over his future at the club as the season comes to a close.
As has been well documented the Spaniard’s contract comes to an end in the next couple of weeks and progress between the Magpies and the former Liverpool boss has been slow.
With Sunday’s clash against Fulham their last game of the season, Benitez revealed that a meeting would take place and that he expected Ashley to join Lee Charnley in discussing his future on Tyneside.
As quoted on the Chronicle’s live press conference blog, he said: “It is exactly the same line, we will have a meeting for sure & then let you know when we have info. We just have to concentrate on game. I will be around after Sunday [to talk] . I don’t need too much time on holiday – 1 week later on is good for me.
“Yes (I expect Mike Ashley to be in attendance) but we don’t know yet.”
Opinion
Benitez’s future is all the Newcastle United fans care about right now and so it is somewhat frustrating to hear that talks are not definitely scheduled right now. The club have had plenty of time to get the ball rolling on discussions and it would be interesting to know exactly why they feel they have not had to move quickly to get him tied up. Perhaps they were expecting a takeover to be completed by now, something which obviously has not taken place, or maybe it is a case of the Magpies playing hardball to try and get the Spaniard to lower his demands both in terms of his contract and in what he wants from Ashley moving forward. Right now Benitez’s focus is Sunday’s game against Fulham – will he be waving farewell to the travelling Toon Army at Craven Cottage? They would certainly hope that is not the case but things are very much up in the air right now. It could be that it stays that way for a couple of weeks.