Rafa Benitez has eyes on his past and future as Newcastle host Liverpool

After months of speculation about his future, Rafa Benitez has given the first indication that he will be at Newcastle United next season.

There was a possibility that Newcastle’s match with Liverpool on Saturday night would be Benitez’s farewell appearance as manager at St James’ Park. His contract expires next month.

But Benitez said that he and Newcastle managing director Lee Charnley have had constructive discussions this week and when asked if he was more positive than before about staying, Benitez replied: “I can say yes, it seems that things are at least moving forward and we will see if something is right at the end.”

When asked if he would meet Newcastle owner Mike Ashley, with whom Benitez has a distant relationship, at best, Benitez said: “I understand the question, I will let you know. I have had the conversation [with Charnley] and he said we will organise a meeting [with Ashley]. We will let you know.”

Change of tone

This is a change in tone from the past few weeks, when the Spaniard sounded peeved at the lack of progress and at Newcastle United’s overall vision of the club, or lack of it.

Newcastle, however, have let Benitez know that he can spend £50m in the coming summer, plus any money generated from sales. It remains unclear who will have the final say on any particular transfer.

But the positivity means that Benitez and Newcastle are free – at least temporarily – to concentrate on Liverpool’s potentially decisive visit to St James’.

Benitez, of course, is a much-loved former Liverpool manager who still lives on the Wirral and he understandably side-stepped questions about how he might feel should Newcastle win and leave Liverpool second with one game to go.

He knew that feeling as Liverpool manager in 2008-09 when his team went through the season with only two league defeats, reached 86 points and still finished second to Manchester United.

Benitez pointed out the contrasting budgets at Anfield between then and now – his net spend that season was around £7m.

‘One of best in world’

“At the moment they’re one of the best teams not just in Europe, but one of the best in the world,” he said of Liverpool. “They haven’t won a trophy but there are so many strong teams, that can happen.

“I feel the Liverpool fans they love me because we won the Champions League in Istanbul, we won four trophies and were in three finals and also the way we were defending the club against [the Establishment].

“We were fighting. They said: ‘Rafa is cracking up’ but of the last 11 games we won 10 of them. At Old Trafford a kid with his father, they had a flag: ‘Rafa is cracking up’, but we beat them 4-1.”

Benitez stressed he has friends at City, too, though he smiled when mentioning that after Newcastle beat City 2-1 in January he received a photograph on his phone. It was of a Liverpool fan who had scrawled a message in the snow on a Merseyside street. It said: ‘Ta Rafa’.