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Benitez offer ‘non negotiable’

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The new contract being offered to Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez is a short-term extension and is non-negotiable, according to the Sun. 

The report claims that the transfer budget for Benitez this summer is £50million and that the Newcastle hierarchy is trying to take back some of the manager’s power.

The Independent previously reported that the two sides were still some distance from agreement, with Benitez wanting control over who he signs and freedom to sign older players such as Salomon Rondon.

Benitez has a £12million offer to manage Chinese Super League team Dalian Yifang but he has reportedly had no offers from major European sides, and he wants to continue to manage at the highest level.

OPINION

The countdown is on and there are now just 10 days to go until Rafa Benitez’s contract runs out at Newcastle. The news that the contract offer is non-negotiable means that it’s now just a waiting game, with neither side seemingly willing to budge. This is what it must be like to negotiate with Mike Ashley and it’s a tactic that’s taken him a long way in the business world. There are shades of Boris Johnson’s view on Brexit here. Johnson’s point, which is certainly gaining traction with the Tories, is that to get a good deal you have to be prepared to walk away completely, even if that would damage the country. Mike Ashley is leaving the doomsday scenario – for Newcastle fans at least – on the table. He’s saying ‘Take my deal or we part ways’, even though he would surely have to admit that a Newcastle without Benitez – and without a manager at all – is a less valuable Newcastle. Perhaps he has a replacement up his sleeve. But the point is, he wants Benitez under certain conditions and that’s his right as an owner. Now the ball is in Benitez’s court and he has to decide whether another short-term deal, without the reassurances he wants about transfers, is a deal worth taking. Benitez seems like an honourable man and we imagine that if he had decided to leave already he would have let Newcastle know. That means the game of brinksmanship could be set to go all the way to June 30.

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