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Rafa Benitez admits that he is “thinking like” he will be at Newcastle United for “10 years” and is therefore planning long-term - but insists he must sit down and talk with Mike Ashley before his own future as manager is decided.

The Spaniard led Newcastle to promotion from the Championship at the first time of asking and United could even clinch the Championship title on Sunday if they better Brighton and Hove Albion’s result on the final day.

Benitez will meet face to face with Ashley next week to discuss his future, as well as that of the club, with the owner.

And, though he’s positive it will go well, Benitez stresses he cannot give a definitive answer as to whether he would still be in situ at St James’ Park until after those discussions.

“No. For sure I will say no,” Benitez replied when asked if he was a “political manager”, as former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher claimed last week, during a wide-ranging interview on BBC’s Football Focus.

“My best time as a manager was my first year at Liverpool when I didn’t have any problems and I was over the moon because you want to concentrate on your football.

(Image: The Chronicle)

“Hopefully everything will be fine, then we will enjoy and we will have what everybody wants.”

Ahead of his meeting with Ashley , Benitez has prepared a plan for the long-term future of the club which he will present to the owner.

And he believes Ashley will like what he reads.

Even if Benitez does leave, however, he insists he has been planning long term regardless.

“It means I will be working very hard and I want to see the owner and hopefully everything will be fine,” Benitez said when it was then put to him that it means he will stay.

“We are already working on pre-season and everything.

“That is the way I do things, it doesn’t matter if you stay or if you go, you have to keep working.

“But at the moment I am thinking like I will be here 10 years.”

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There have been reports over the past week that Benitez will ask for up to £100million to spend this summer, but the Spaniard once again stressed that those figures were wide of the mark - just as he did during his pre-Barnsley Press conference on Friday.

He continued: “I was reading that, ‘Rafa was asking for this figure’, or ‘he will be given this much money’,

“We haven’t talked about how much money we want, we haven’t had the meeting yet that we have to have.

“We will talk about that in the future.

“It’s not that I am asking for this figure or another one.

“We have to be realistic and I expect that the conversation will be positive, constructive, and after that it will be positive hopefully.”

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Newcastle will attempt to re-establish themselves as a Premier League side next season, but Benitez has refused to put a limit on what they can achieve.

However, he does believe that expectations of fans may need to be “managed” now.

“Newcastle United is a big club that we have to manage now maybe the expectations,” Benitez added.

“Some people will be expecting and thinking: ‘Oh we have to challenge and maybe be in Europe.’

“Some people will be happy just avoiding relegation.

“So we have to make sure that the message is the right message, and the fans they understand that the best way to go as high as you can in the table is stay calm, support the team and keep the professionals doing their job.”