Monday night confirmed something we all knew was going to happen sooner or later: Newcastle are back in the Premier League.
A 4-1 over Preston North End saw the Magpies secure their long awaited promotion after just a season back in the Championship, and Rafa Benitez, soon after, had a chat with Spanish radio Cadena SER about the feat.
Directly addressing the critics who doubted his ability to manage in a difficult league like the Championship, the Newcastle manager also took some time to congratulate everyone who made promotion a realistic aim, such as the players, his staff and the fans.
With a return to the top flight comes an increase in income, which means increased funds to bolster the Geordie club’s squad ahead of next season.
In fact, Benitez even revealed how much money he would have at his disposal for the upcoming transfer window.
He said, relayed by Goal France: “The Championship is difficult, we play two games a week, and you need to recuperate. The Premier League is something else, we’ll need to change the team a bit. We will have a £70m budget.”
For a team just promoted, that’s quite a large transfer kitty, and we should expect Newcastle to make quite a few moves in the coming months, with Mike Ashley and co. intent on staying in the Premier League at the end of the 2017/18.
Whether Rafa Benitez will be there to oversee it all, however, remains to be seen.
