Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez has given the clearest indication that he intends to stay at the club beyond the upcoming summer.
The Spaniard endured a frustrating January transfer window as he failed to secure any of his transfer targets and there were reports that all is not well between him and owner Mike Ashley.
However, the former Liverpool and Real Madrid boss has hinted that he is already preparing for the next season with the Magpies. Benitez revealed that the club scouts are already looking for potential summer transfer targets and submitting regular reports to him.
He said: ‘The scouts are analysing big things for the future, watching games and filing reports.
‘There will be future meetings to analyse the market. The difficult thing here is you don’t know if we will be in the Premier League or the Championship, but we are still looking for good players, then we will have some time to see what our targets are.’
Benitez has reportedly not spoken to with Ashley since January, but he insists that he shares a perfect working relationship with his point of contact managing director Lee Charnley.
He added: ‘My relationship is always with Lee, he’s the one I talk to.
“We will have some meetings in the future to talk about what we want to do. We know our squad and that we have to maybe find some balance in some positions.
“We will start monitoring players just so we know we are ready.”
The Magpies currently occupy the second spot in the league table, but they will go top if they manage to beat Aston Villa at St James’ Park on Monday night.
