Rafa Benitez urges Newcastle owner Mike Ashley to spend in January after making surprise attendance
Ashley was a surprise guest at Selhurst Park, his first attendance at a Newcastle game in almost 18 months
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Your support makes all the difference.Rafael Benitez admitted he had “no idea” why Mike Ashley chose to attend his first Newcastle game in 16 months at Selhurst Park on Saturday but insisted that would be a positive if the unpopular owner decides to re-engage with the club.
Ashley was a surprise attendee as his side played out a 0-0 draw away at Crystal Palace that saw Benitez field a limited team devoid of attacking ambition. Though the Spaniard told reporters afterwards that he was one of the few who knew Ashley would be in attendance, he wasn’t sure if he would have time to speak to him post-game and instead chose to focus on what the billionaire might bring to the party - namely transfer funds for the January window.
“I like to see the owner supporting the team. It’s not me, it’s the club, it’s the team. His team,” Benitez said.
“I think I have to take this as a positive. If he comes to see the team he can see the players, what we have, and then hopefully he can be more sensible and then we will be ready to do something when we need to do it.
“At the moment we have to wait until January, in the meantime we have to give everything, every game.”
That Benitez is already plotting transfers in September speaks to how frustrating a summer the veteran coach has endured on Tyneside. The 58-year-old spent July and August virtually begging for the club to make the signings his patchwork squad needed to be able to compete higher up the table.Ashley’s re-emergence from the shadows is intriguing as Benitez already had a recruitment meeting scheduled for this week with managing director Lee Charnley, head of recruitment Steve Nickson and European head of scouting Paul Barker.
Benitez clearly lives in hope that Ashley will be compelled to hand him transfer funds as the fear of relegation grows. Winless Newcastle boast just two points from their opening six games and lacked any real goal threat against Palace at Selhurst Park, but Benitez remains confident that his team is trending in the right direction.
“I think that if you analyse all the games, we played against four top sides and still we were close,” he said.
“We drew against Chelsea then concede a late goal, even against Manchester City we had a chance at the end but especially against Tottenham and Cardiff we could get something more. Arsenal we were on top of them in first half, we could get something more.
“So I think we did what we have to do in terms of effort. We have to improve on the ball, you see today two or three passes and we could be there but we were missing this final pass so we have to improve that.
“We have a lot to do now. You could see a lot of positives but we have to keep working hard on the training ground.”
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