With the storm clouds clearing, Rafa Benitez now has the chance to set Newcastle on the right path

Newcastle’s progress will be about incremental development, and to that end they could not have a better man at the helm than Benitez

Rafa Benitez oversaw a convincing 3-0 win against Southampton on Saturday (Getty)

It was always a strange match. Rafa Benitez, the former manager of Real Madrid, footballing royalty, and Mike Ashley, the maverick who made a fortune from nothing. In transfer windows they have crossed swords, but now they are speaking, and the importance of that should not be understated.

The relationship was perhaps not helped by the appearance of Amanda Staveley in October and talk of a possible takeover, when Newcastle were ninth in the Premier League table. In the following 12 games, when fanciful notion of spending hundreds of millions of pounds on all kinds of star players started emerging, Newcastle managed just one win.

It was a damaging period. Now, with that takeover conversation largely expunged, there has been a robust revival. Tyneside feels like storm clouds are clearing. Its football team swatted Southampton aside - and that has not been a regular occurrence in recent years in the Premier League.

They were excellent, dominant, fluid, expressive and in control from the moment Kenedy scored after just 64 seconds. The on-loan Chelsea midfielder added a second after 29 minutes with a brilliant breakaway goal and then Matt Ritchie scored a fine third before the hour mark. Tyneside relaxed. The stadium felt less fraught. Newcastle will try to sign Kenedy, who is 22, in the summer. The goalkeeper Martin Dubravka, another January signing, is 29. He was dominant once again. His deal seems nailed on to become permanent, from Sparta Prague, in the summer.

Hungry players, with their best years ahead. Newcastle are newly-promoted, and just about everyone has forgotten that. Building the finances to attack, to make the club compete again, will take time. One of football’s biggest myths is that relegation can help, can clear deadwood. It doesn’t. The fall in TV money from the Premier League to the Championship is around £105m (and the parachute payment, initially £40 million, lessens with each season). No business can survive that. Newcastle are still recovering. It will take time. There has to be patience.

It puts the club on a clear path. Newcastle’s progress will be about incremental development, and to that end they could not have a better man at the helm than Benitez.

It has felt a hugely insulting criticism to continually demean the current squad, one that won promotion at the first attempt - no mean feat - as a bunch of Championship players. This was never thrown at Robert Lee, John Beresford, Andy Cole, Steve Howey, Pavel Srnieck, Steve Watson, Lee Clark or Robbie Elliott, men who grew with the club when it was promoted in 1993 and became such a genuine force in the English game.


 Benitez is the man to move Newcastle forward 
 (Getty)

Jamaal Lascelles strode around the turf at full time on Saturday as the rain fell to take acclaim and share relief with supporters who have bought into his heart. Every day Benitez makes him a better player. Florian Lejeune, a £10m signing in the summer, is not a Championship player. Paul Dummett, finally serenaded by his own club’s supporters, is a quality Premier League defender. Jonjo Shelvey is not Championship, nor Mo Diame, nor Matt Ritchie and Dwight Gayle, who ran 80 yards for an assist on the second goal.

All of those players are progressing. Newcastle spent £47m in the summer and the best days of Jacob Murphy, Mikel Merino, Lejeune and Christian Atsu are ahead.

It will always be an at times tempestuous relationship between Benitez’s ambition and Ashley’s rigid financial beliefs, which, whisper it, are in place to protect the long-term future of Newcastle United (see the wanton, aimless spending at Sunderland and its consequences for an alternative).


 Lascelles has grown under Benitez (Getty)
 (AFP/Getty Images)

They are the unlikely couple; Ashley and Benitez, but there is a chance it could work. There is something compelling about the level of care Benitez has to show to guide these young players.

He admitted last week that he has not managed like this since he was at Extremadura. That was his first success, against all odds, and he smiles every time he mentions it.

That translates well to Newcastle United, a young team, a new team and one trying to emerge in corporate football as the proud, regional club you should hope it always will be.