Stan Collymore has given some advice to Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez regarding his relationship with the club’s board.
Numerous media outlets, including The Mirror, recently reported that the Spaniard is growing increasingly frustrated with the club’s lack of transfer activity.
So far this summer, the newly-promoted Premier League club have brought in just one new recruit, which is the permanent signing of Christian Atsu from Chelsea.
There has been a change behind the scenes, with chief scout Graham Carr leaving the club, and it seems from Collymore’s point of view that Benitez wants too much control.
The former Liverpool striker has claimed that if the Spaniard continues to have conflict with a club’s hierarchy then he risks souring ever job that he gets in management.
In his column for The Mirror, Collymore wrote:
“Rafa Benitez is a control freak — he has been since he was at Liverpool. He didn’t like any meddling at Anfield, he didn’t want any interference in the academy, he wanted control over every aspect of the club and its direction, and that’s still the case now he’s at Newcastle.
“He’s a benign dictator, and I actually really like that in a manager, but I’m starting to worry that if he keeps picking fights with owners and chief execs at the rate he does then he may well start talking himself out of every club he goes to.
“It seems as if Rafa wants to be the head honcho over everybody and that he tests club owners to the point when they think ‘You know what, it’s too much hassle’. So he might need to be a little bit more pragmatic because there’s no reason why he can’t have his cake and eat it at Newcastle.”
There are no suggestions as yet that Benitez will leave St James’ Park in the near future, but questions will surely be raised if Newcastle have not brought in the manager’s targets by the deadline at the end of August.
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