In May, Rafa Benitez returned to Newcastle United’s training ground to begin work ahead of the new Premier League campaign. Last season’s top-flight fixtures had not yet finished.
It was then that the Spaniard — buoyant in the wake of winning the Championship title — said this: ‘We will try to put things in place that (owner Mike Ashley) will realise are a professional approach. We’re talking about a project and we’re not thinking about something that’s not possible.’
On Friday, just three months on, Benitez gave us the clearest indication yet that everything has changed, and not for the better.