Rafa Benitez hopes Mike Ashley is ‘clever enough’ to understand the consequences of not spending in January and has imposed a deadline of January 20 for the owner to give him what he needs to keep the club in the Premier League.
The manager has spoken over the phone with Ashley to outline the desperate need for new signings next month, but still he does not know his transfer budget.
Benitez reminded Ashley that the club’s failure to invest significantly in the summer is the reason they have lost eight of the last nine and find themselves in the bottom three ahead of today’s trip to West Ham.