Newcastle United

Rafael Benitez: 'Survival all that matters at Newcastle United'

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 12 March 2016

Newcastle United boss Rafael Benitez is unconcerned by his title at St James' Park, having agreed to take on the job at the struggling Premier League side.

Rafael Benitez has insisted that he is not concerned by his official job title at Newcastle United, as long as he can keep the club in the Premier League.

The experienced coach was appointed as new Toon boss on Friday afternoon following the drawn-out departure of Steve McClaren.

Benitez has already confirmed that he has a relegation clause in his contract, ensuring that he can leave the club if they drop into the Championship, but he is more than confident of pulling off the task at hand.

"We have ten important games; it doesn't matter if I am manager or head coach or whatever," Sky Sports News quotes him as saying. "After these ten games I think we will stay in the Premier League and I will be the manager.

"My first conversation with [managing director] Lee Charnley was just about everything, and I said, 'What about the future?' He said, 'We know we have done a lot of good things and some not so good things sometimes, but with your experience we hope we can go in the right direction'."

First up for Benitez on his latest English top-flight adventure is a meeting with league leaders Leicester City on Monday night.