Newcastle United boss Rafael Benitez has said that he is currently concerned more about the Premier League opener against Tottenham than the summer signings. Newcastle United made 7 signings this summer, two of them being loan signings. However, they have made a profit in excess of £25 million this summer.
Benitez said, “With five games to go we were safe and I was happy like everybody here. Then the year after you are expecting we can go and step forward, but during this summer we were trying to do our best to improve everything. But as soon as that finishes you cannot waste time. This is the time to be sure that the centre-back is ready against Harry Kane or the striker is ready against the keeper. We have to be sure that everybody is thinking about that. We cannot change what happened during the summer. What we have is a good group of players and I have to bring the best from them.”
Despite the lack of summer signings, Rafael Benitez said that he is not considering leaving The Magpies. The former Liverpool boss said, “I like the city, I like the fans, I like the club and the potential this club has. I believe that we can do well. If we do well it will be easier to achieve what we want to achieve in the future. We have to concentrate on football now. We wanted to finish the transfer window early to concentrate on football and that’s what we have to do. The players, the fans and everyone close to the stadium must stick together. We are playing Tottenham and that’s something you have to worry about. It’s important for us to be sure that everybody is focused on that.”
On Wednesday, the Newcastle players resolved their dispute with the club’s board over the bonuses for this season. Benitez said that the fuss over bonuses won’t have any impact on the club’s match against Tottenham Hotspur. He said, “You can change the motivation in one minute. They were talking about these things but as soon as they have the agreement, everything was finished and you could see when they had the meeting and they agreed the conditions, nobody was worried about that in training. This group is a very good group. When everybody is talking about football and we talk about Tottenham and how difficult they are, that’s when you realise the team is really, really concentrated.”
The Magpies begin their Premier League campaign against Tottenham Hotspur in a few minutes.
