Rafa Benitez lays down the law in Newcastle's transfer tug-of-war

The return to prominence of chief scout Graham Carr risks the Championship club suffering another one of their 'turns'

Rafa Benitez agreed to stay on at St James' Park on the understanding that he would have 'control' (Getty)

There was a debate in the Newcastle United media suite on Tuesday about whether Rafa Benitez had used the word tricky or the word cheeky to describe a question about Newcastle’s transfer policy. The clouding seemed appropriate.

Newcastle, top of a league table, £30 million in credit in transfer dealings since relegation and with a city largely united, are having one of their turns.

This is not new. It was the same media suite, at the very end of the training ground in Benton, four miles from St James’ Park, where Joe Kinnear went berserk on his fourth day in office. It was where Kevin Keegan paraded Fabricio Coloccini on August 15, 2008 and said he had been given assurances James Milner would not be sold. The room has form.

And so it was from there that Rafa Benitez faced his most difficult day, politically at least, since he surprisingly took over as manager in March last year, when the clouds of gloom from the football club choked the city of Newcastle so badly it felt like a form of industrial smog.

Then, Newcastle were second bottom of the Premier League, with 24 points from 28 games (0.85 points per game). These things are always important to remember, even if Newcastle were still relegated. (Under Benitez they picked up 13 points from the remaining 10 fixtures, at an average of 1.3 points per game).

In the summer, Benitez was tempted to stay after conversations about control. “Football business, I will have responsibility of,” he said on May 25, after signing a three-year contract. In the aftermath he helped overhaul a mismatched and boardroom-bought squad by selling players like Moussa Sissoko, dropping £90 million into the club accounts in sales and spending £60 million. These are figures he is acutely aware of.

Newcastle lost the first two games of the current season and then marched to the top of the Championship (winning nine straight in October and November). More than a quarter of a million people have watched the last five league games at St James’ Park. It has felt like a club emerging from darkness.

It had all felt a bit too good to be true so Newcastle had senior managerial meetings last week, which included the owner Mike Ashley. The previously marginalised chief scout Graham Carr, now 72 and who had sat with Ashley for the FA Cup tie at Birmingham City, was offered more significance in recruitment. The club also decided it would adhere more closely, once more, to the controversial policy not to sign players over the age of 25.

There are times when Newcastle need the bewildered look of The Office’s Tim, played by Martin Freeman, sitting in the background as events play out. On Saturday, in the shadow of that meeting and a change in transfer policy which is baffling even by the club’s recent standards, came Benitez’s moment.

Newcastle were drawing 1-1 at Brentford in a game watched by Ashley (his second of the season) when, in the 79th minute, Daryl Murphy glanced a fine header past Daniel Bentley. Murphy is 32 years of age. He was bought in the summer for £2 million. It felt a massive goal, especially in light of Ashley’s presence over the football club once more, and it took Newcastle back to the top of the Championship (having won more league games than any other league club in England).

Benitez smiled throughout the press conference ahead of the replay with Birmingham, but there were points to be made, and he made them.

Yes, the club cannot sign anyone without talking with me, but at the same time, 'Can you sign whatever you want?’

Rafa Benitez

“It has proved that you have to have a balance,” he said of Murphy’s goal and his importance following injuries to Dwight Gayle and Aleksandar Mitrovic. ”Our squad is quite young. If you see the average age, I think we are in the middle of the division. I think the oldest is Brighton (currently second top).

“My point is that we have to be so happy that we are in a very good position, changing players, making profit, all these things together. For me, it is very simple to understand what we need and try to improve the team.”

He was asked about Carr’s input. “From the beginning, from day one, we had some meetings, we were asking different scouts about players,” he replied.

“We had a meeting maybe one month ago or something like that and we had a meeting the other day, names, names and then we put all the names [down] and after, we decide.”

Mike Ashley, the Newcastle owner, has begun to attend St James Park again (Getty)

He was asked again about transfers and if he had the final say. “Yes, the club cannot sign anyone without talking with me, but at the same time, 'Can you sign whatever you want?’ We are trying to sign what we need, that's what we are trying to do. We have to try to find the players that we need.”

He was asked, also, about Ashley’s reappearance. “I think he likes the way the team is playing and he wants to enjoy life on the pitch!” Benitez replied with a smile. “In terms of that, it is the same situation. I still continue talking with Lee (Charnley, the managing director) and working every day.

“When we were winning nine games in a row, nobody was asking me this question (about meeting Ashley). I don’t have any problem continuing doing things in the way that we were doing. Each club has its own way to do things. The worse was always when the owner, or the chairman, or the president, were involved talking with players. That is the worst in my experience.

“If you have the people close to you, working with you and they have contact, I don’t have any issue with that. My compromise with the club, with the fans, with the owner, with everyone, is to try my best and try to go up. My understanding is that if you have a good manager, leave him to take responsibility.”

Benitez, it would turn out later, had used the word tricky, earlier in the interview. The Spaniard did not know, he revealed, what was meant by the word 'cheeky'. A renewed attempt to impose a transfer policy that has relegated Newcastle twice would come pretty close.