“I don’t give up” – Benitez to Marca on Ashley selling, and wanting new investment

Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez has been speaking to Marca at length, in an interview split into several different articles on Tuesday.

One of the questions the Spanish newspaper simply had to ask Benitez is about the potential sale of Newcastle. Marca wanted to know if the manager sees Mike Ashley selling up, but the lack of immediate buyers, as a positive or negative thing.

“I just look at my work and I don’t give up,” explained Benitez. “If the team does well and is on the up, it’s easier to attract investors.”

Football manager and investment attractor, Benitez certainly has his work cut out right now at Newcastle. The club’s great start to the Premier League season can only be attractive for potential investors, and that’s almost certainly helped Ashley decide this is the time to openly push a sale.

Asked whether he took a risk in moving to Newcastle in the first place, Benitez explained: “Not by coming to Newcastle, which was reasoned, but by the fact that passing through the second division was risky. I trust my people and the team, but the Championship is very difficult, very physical, with two games a week, and where you know you’re going to make mistakes.”

Marca put it to Benitez that he’s hero worshipped at Newcastle, and ask if the love is different from what he felt whilst manager of Liverpool: “I have been very lucky in all the places I’ve gone. In Extremadura, Tenerife, Valencia, Naples… I have enjoyed good relations with the environment: fans and city.

“In some places more than others, but in England, in Liverpool and Newcastle, is where I most value. In the first club there was six years and many titles and my house is still there. Here they appreciate that I have stayed despite being in the second division.”