Jamie Carragher urges Newcastle fans to enjoy Rafa Benitez while he’s with Magpies… as he doesn’t think it’ll last

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Jamie Carragher believes that Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez may not be at St James’ Park for a long tenure.

Jamie Carragher has told Monday Night Football on Sky Sports (broadcast on 25th September 2017 from 19:00) that while he thinks that Newcastle have more than enough to stay in the Premier League this season, he is doubtful that Rafa Benitez will enjoy a long spell in charge of the Magpies.

If you ask most Newcastle fans, they would surely argue that Benitez is the best thing to have happened to the club in the last few years as he managed to bring them back up to the Premier League at the first time of asking and appears to have built some impressive foundations amongst the squad.

However, life has certainly been eventful for the Spaniard, and he has seemingly had no problem opening up about the frustrations he endured during the summer transfer window – as he did in an interview with BBC Sport back in August – and while Carragher expects the Magpies to stay up comfortably this term, he is worried about how long the former Liverpool boss will remain at St James’ Park.

“I don’t think there’s any chance of Newcastle going down just because of the manager, he’s very pragmatic, he’ll make it very difficult. I don’t think Liverpool have got an easy game going to St James’ at the weekend because you’ve seen how it was with Tottenham before they went down to 10 men,” he told Monday Night Football on Sky Sports.

“Every game Newcastle have, you rarely see them lose 4 or 5-0 as you might see teams in the bottom half of the table – I think that’s where Newcastle will do. I don’t expect to see them in a relegation fight

“But if I’m being totally honest,I don’t see Rafa Benitez at Newcastle over a sustained long period of time. I think eventually something will happen with him and the owner, and I think unfortunately for Newcastle, it’s not going to be a happy and long marriage so enjoy it while he’s here.”

Given Benitez’s frustrations during the summer following the jubilation of their promotion out of the Championship, it did appear at times that Benitez may be tempted to consider his future.

But perhaps if the Spaniard can help the side over-achieve this season, they may find it easier to attract better players, the kind of players Benitez may have wanted in the summer – but that is certainly a big ask.