http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rafa-benitez-allowed-newcastle-fans-11352643
Rafa Benitez has allowed Newcastle fans to dream again - that's why he's the people's choice
Newcastle United fans have already taken Rafa Benitez to their hearts even despite relegation - and NUFC Writer Chris Waugh explains why
Over the past week, United supporters have made it abundantly clear they want the Spaniard to remain with chants, banners and even a petition led by The Chronicle.
In fact, they have practically implored Benitez to do so. To all Newcastle fans and observers of the club, the reasons why the Toon faithful are so desperate to hold on to Benitez are obvious.
Yet some observers from afar still appear dumbfounded by the Magpies’ adoration for the 56-year-old and scoff at the suggestion that Benitez remaining in charge would be the best thing for the football club.
Why, given that Benitez was unable to save Newcastle from relegation with 10 games to go, have Newcastle fans already taken the Spaniard so deeply into their hearts?
The answer is simple: he has allowed them to dream again.
As banal and cliched as that might sound in many ways, it’s also true.
Mike Ashley’s nine-year tenure as Newcastle owner has seen the club lurch from one bitter disappointment to another - the two relegations are merely the very showpiece failings - and United supporters have lost belief in the art of possible.
Over the past few years, Magpies fans have been told that cup competitions do not matter - in fact, for a long while they were almost treated with utter contempt by the club - and they have been offered underwhelming managerial appointment after underwhelming managerial appointment.
Alan Shearer, a club legend, was treated despicably by this regime and was not even given a formal reply to his proposal to rebuild the club following relegation in 2009.
Chris Hughton, left in temporary charge simply because there were no alteratives, was then sacked having led the Magpies to immediate promotion and when the club were mid-table in the top flight.
Joe Kinnear has been appointed twice by this regime, while Alan Pardew - recently sacked by a third-tier club - was brought in to replace Hughton, and even Steve McClaren had just been dismissed for failing at Derby County when Newcastle came calling for a third time in six months. Having been rejected by the ex-England boss on two occasions previously, don’t forget.
All of these ‘managers’ - or, in McClaren’s case, ‘head coach’ - were essentially subservient to the footballing board, to greater or less degrees. If Benitez stays, there will be a refreshing break from that.
The Spaniard will only agree to the role if he is given total control over incomings and outgoings.
Chief scout Graham Carr is almost certain to depart now, having spent the last couple of years as a de facto director of football given his immense control over transfers.
Benitez will, for the first time under Ashley, be managing from a position of strength.
He will influence every football-related area of the club.
This has echoes of when Kevin Keegan made great demands of John Hall in 1992 – a football man finally in full control of football decisions.
Yet, even aside from all of that, the real reason Newcastle fans already adore Benitez is because of what he represents.
Not only is he a break from the previous under Ashley, he represents everything Newcastle fans want in their football club.
Like Keegan in the early-1990s, and then Sir Bobby Robson a few years later, Benitez believes in the potential of Newcastle United Football Club.
“Shoot for the moon and even if you miss you’ll land among the stars” is very much Benitez’s approach. There is no ceiling to his ambition, and there should be no ceiling to Newcastle’s ambition.
The Spaniard was willing to join a side in the relegation zone and who appeared doomed with 10 games to go because he saw the undoubted “potential” at a “massive club”, to use his own words.
Benitez did not just target survival with Newcastle though, he joined because he wants to be competing in Europe, and he wants to be challenging for trophies.
If he stays, he will do so because he believes the hierarchy match his own ambition to bounce straight back from the Championship - and then really push on in an attempt to achieve great things and to lift cups.
You see Benitez not only offers a break from everything that has gone before under Ashley, he is a vision of hope.
He is the ‘messiah’ figure which Newcastle fans desperately crave.
With Benitez in charge, anything is possible. Even in spite of relegation, Tyneside can finally begin to dream again.
