Newcastle owner Mike Ashley says Rafa Benitez was money motivated

Newcastle owner Mike Ashley has claimed that former manager Rafa Benitez thought about „money first, Rafa, then the club last“ after the Spaniard’s exit this summer.

Benitez, who failed to agree a new deal at St James’ Park this summer, said that he and the club’s hierarchy had been unable to find a shared vision for the future.

However, Ashley has now claimed it was down to finances, rather than footballing philosophies, that meant he left Tyneside.

„If you come out and say the things he did, you would think it was football club first, Rafa second, money third,“ the Newcastle owner told the Daily Mail.

„I’d say it was money first, Rafa, then the club last. He took the totally soft option, took the money and went to China. That disappoints me.“

A week after his Newcastle contract expired, Benitez was appointed manager of Chinese club Dalian Yifang, where he is on a reported £25m per year.

Ashley adds that he is disappointed with the 59-year-old’s approach to the situation.

„If he’d gone back to Real Madrid, or a top-six club in the Premier League, I get it. But it was about money and all he had to do was say that from the beginning,“ he said.

„He asked for a 50 per cent pay increase and I think he did that because he knew it couldn’t work. And if we had agreed to that, I think it would have been something else.

„And everyone thinks we lost him because we wouldn’t pay a couple of quid more. He had the microphone and we didn’t.“

Benitez left Newcastle after three years in charge at St James’ Park, winning promotion from the Championship and achieving two mid-table finishes in the Premier League.

Ashley admits this was a superb achievement and claims he did all that was in his power to keep Benitez beyond the expiry of his contract.

He said: „I’m not disappointed in him as a manager – he did an excellent job. It puzzles me why any fan thinks I wouldn’t want him.

„I’m not the thickest person on the planet. Why wouldn’t I want excellence? Why wouldn’t I want this manager? Accuse me of many things, but not that. We couldn’t have done any more.“

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