The Newcastle United manager is hopeful of being given substantial funds in the summer.
Newcastle boss Rafa Benitez spoke to reporters after his side’s 2-0 defeat to Arsenal last night, and suggested that he needs to spend somewhere around £75 million on attack-minded players, if they are to compete with the Premier League’s bigger clubs, as quoted by Sky Sports.
The Magpies currently sit in 14th spot in the Premier League table, and despite a decent run of form recently, their performances against the so-called big six over the past two years have been less than impressive, aside from their win over Manchester City in January.
Rafa did bring Miguel Almiron to St James’ Park in January, for around £20 million, but the Spaniard insisted that Newcastle need to invest even further still, as quoted by Sky Sports:
“These kind of games are very similar – they are close as you miss your chances in terms of passes in the final third, then you have to defend against a team that has pace and quality. The threat we had in the first half we didn’t have the in the second half. We have been speaking all season, the final third is where you can spend £40-£50m, or £75m on players.”
Whether Benitez will be backed sufficiently in the transfer market at the end of the season will depend heavily on whether Mike Ashely is still the club’s owner in the summer.
And the Spaniard might have been a little optimistic when suggesting that he needs £75 million to bring his attacking department up to scratch.
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