Jamie Carragher: Rafa Benitez would love to return to Newcastle
Jamie Carragher believes that Rafa Benitez would fancy a move to Newcastle despite him still being in the Everton job.
The Spaniard took over the job in the summer and the former Liverpool captain believes that he would’ve fancied a move to Newcastle post their takeover.
Having won a Champions League under him, Carragher believes that he’s still got the hunger to win silverware and a club like Newcastle, given their embarrassment of riches, would help him build a squad good enough to challenge.
Speaking on The Overlap, “I think he’d love to go back to Newcastle if he had a chance. He was desperate to get back to the Premier League. He wanted that chance to prove he can still compete at the top level.
“I know him realistically enough to know, Rafa still thinks he should be competing in the Champions League.
“That’s why I think if he had the opportunity, maybe in one year or two, he would’ve taken it (the Newcastle job). I think he’ll do a brilliant job to get back to that level of winning trophies.”
Likely to stay
We think that if Benitez wanted to leave post the takeover, there would have been a different tone to how things have been reported in the media.
The fans at Newcastle love him and the new owners are also understood to be fans of the Spaniard, so it would not have been that complicated.
However, just seven games into a new project, he is not one to abandon ship and join a club just because the money there is good.
Carragher may be right about his ambitions of winning trophies, but that could be achieved at Everton with the right kind of planning as well.
This summer, due to FFP constraints, he couldn’t get to spend how much he wanted to in order to strengthen the side, but we believe January would be a good time to rope in at least a couple of good signings.
Benitez took the job under tremendous supporter backlash and he’s not one to suddenly quit the project he’s starting to build at Goodison Park.
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