Rafa Benitez favourite to be the next Premier League manager to go

Rafa Benitez

The Premier League season is yet to get underway, yet there are already a host of rumours regarding the future of a certain manager.

Rafa Benitez may have got the Magpies promoted and whilst the Spaniard is clearly worshipped on Tyneside, he is far from happy with the club’s inactivity in the transfer market.

So far, the club have recruited Florian Lejeune for a fee of £8.7million from Eibar as well as Stefan O’Connor and Josef Yarney as free agents.

Sammy Ameobi, Vurnon Anita, Lubomir Satka and Haris Vuckic have all departed St. James’ Park.

Though Benitez is growing increasingly frustrated with the Magpies’ lack of movement in the market and dodged interviews following his side’s win over Hearts.

Newcastle opened their pre-season campaign with a 2-1 against SPL side Hearts at Tynecastle on Friday night. Dwight Gayle scored twice, netting the winner from a Jonjo Shelvey corner following Jamie Walker’s equaliser.

Gayle scored the opener in the fifth minute, however, despite an encouraging start to pre-season, Benitez kept his counsel following the game and did not speak to any press.

At 4/1 with Premier League betting 2017, the former Liverpool boss is the favourite to be the next Premier League manager to go.

Ahead of Benitez’s men’s clash with Hearts, headlines were dominated with news regarding United’s lack of transfer activity.

The club saw a bid of £8million turned down for Norwich midfielder Jacob Murphy, adding to the frustration of fans and managers alike.

The Canaries star is currently 4/7 to sign on Tyneside. It is thought that Benitez wanted to get business done as early as possible to best prepare for the new season, though things are not going as planned.

Whilst Benitez did dodge questions last night, he did carry out at interview with the club’s official website and is expected to address the media during the club’s week long training camp in Ireland.

The Magpies next game is a week away as they head to Deepdale to face Preston North End.

That game should be telling in which players are staying and who is leaving as both Tim Krul and Karl Darlow did not travel to Edinburgh.

The goalkeeping duo are facing uncertain features on Tyneside due to the fact Benitez is on the hunt for a new recruit between the sticks.

Instead, Rob Elliot and Freddie Woodman travelled to Tynecastle with the former starting the match and Woodman coming on in the second half.

Woodman was part of the England U20 side that won the World Cup. Meanwhile, Krul has returned following a year on loan at Dutch duo AZ Alkmaar and Ajax.

Darlow was also the subject of a bid totalling £5million from rivals Middlesbrough, though the club turned this down.