OPINION
Mike Ashley is on the lookout for a new manager at Newcastle after it was revealed that Rafa Benitez would not be signing an extension to his current contract, which runs out on June 30.
Newcastle fans will want a big name. They didn’t want to lose Benitez, who is universally adored at St James’ Park, but now he’s going they’ll be hoping for a manager with similar status in the game.
That could be tough. At least under the current owner.
According to the Mirror, Jose Mourinho has said that he would be interested in the job if the BZG takeover went through.
He would be willing to manage a club that’s not among the top clubs now if he thought they would have the means to challenge in the future.
However, in a recent interview with The Coaches’ Voice, he has now made it clear that he wouldn’t be prepared to manage at a club where it was enough to finish in the top half of the Premier League.
And, under Ashley, that’s the best Newcastle can realistically hope for.
Benitez was offered a budget of £50million to spend this summer and he was never afforded full control over who he could sign.
That’s not going to propel Newcastle into the elite and it won’t wash for managers like Mourinho.
“The only thing that I know is what I don’t want,” Mourinho said on The Coaches’ Voice. “What I don’t want is crystal clear. I am quite pathological in this sense of… I have to play to win.
“Then, if I win or don’t win, then that’s my problem and the players and the club and the structure but I need a project where the feeling is I play to win.
“If somebody gives me a wonderful, incredible, amazing 10-year contract and the objective of the team is to stay in the first part of the table and if you finish seventh, eighth or ninth, it’s perfect, that’s not for me. That’s my nature.
“I remember what I did before but it is not me. My next [job] is to fight to win.”
Newcastle fans are going to have to be realistic about who their new manager is likely to be. Or at least who it won’t be while Ashley is still the owner.
Many people were amazed when a manager with the record of Benitez stayed with Newcastle after they were relegated to the Championship. Finding someone similar who is willing to merely keep Newcastle afloat in the Premier League is very unlikely to happen.