Two Carabao Cup finals in three seasons? A Champions League push? Talk of a new stadium? A lot has changed at Newcastle United since Rafa Benitez reluctantly walked away from a shell of a club.
“I was very close to staying,” the former Newcastle boss revealed to ChronicleLive. “But, with the situation when I was leaving, Mike Ashley was not selling at this time and we could not wait. It was not a proper project at this time because there was not any intention to invest, to improve things, so we had to do it.
“The timing was a pity, but it was what it was. I couldn’t wait because it was very clear he had no intention to invest and to improve so we couldn’t be waiting and waiting.”
The takeover was finally completed a couple of years later in 2021. By then, the landscape had changed, but Benitez is not bitter about that. On the contrary. Only an upcoming UEFA conference in Madrid has prevented Benitez from physically attending the Carabao Cup final on Sunday.
Benitez will instead be watching from home. Not as a former Newcastle manager or an ex-Liverpool boss, but as possibly the only neutral on Merseyside after being ‘treated really well’ by Geordies and Scousers. Although Benitez stressed it would be ‘against my feelings’ to pick a side, the 64-year-old described the final as ‘massive’ for Newcastle as Eddie Howe’s team bid to end a crippling wait for silverware.
“We experienced some years of suffering without any chance to make real progress,” he said. “Now they have had this possibility in the last few years and they are growing and challenging for trophies, which is amazing.
