When Rafael Benitez arrived at Newcastle United there was one thing surely on the cards if the Spaniard stayed long enough, and that’s disgruntlement about transfers.
The manager has been frustrated for much of his career over transfers, whether it be a club not having the right budget, sporting directors buying the wrong players, transfers being done too late and first choices missed. Benitez has had these issues in Spanish, Italian, and English football, so it’s not unique to Newcastle.
Famously, when at Valencia, Benitez said he’d asked the club for a table and been given a lampshade instead. He didn’t last much longer before leaving for Liverpool.
As reports swirl about Newcastle United interest, and an initial €15m offer, in Benfica’s Andreas Samaris, so do repeated claims about trouble brewing at St James’ Park. Samaris is the second player in Portugal to be strongly linked to Newcastle this summer, with Ruben Semedo eventually joining Villarreal instead.
A Bola newspaper say Newcastle have been ‘scared’ by Benfica’s asking price for Samaris, with the Portuguese club determined not to let the midfielder go for less than €20m.
Negotiations continue, something also claimed by O Jogo on Sunday, but A Bola quote a source close to the potential transfer as saying: “Nothing is done.”
A Bola don’t sound quite as optimistic as O Jogo did, with the latter suggesting a deal could be found in the next few days.
