Rafa Benitez is set to leave Newcastle United at the end of the season unless the club manage to give him the two signings he asked for at the start of this transfer window.

Benitez is desperate for transfers be made and gave the club a list of targets in December, with players in each position separated into different price brackets, but Newcastle are yet to land any of them.

Newcastle’s manager has refused to discuss transfers in public this month, but sources have told Telegraph Sport that he is reaching breaking point as we head into the final nine days of the window.

As a result, if the club refuse to listen to back him before the end of the month, he will reject all offers of a new contract and will quit at the end of the season.

The Spaniard’s preferred option is to remain on Tyneside, but he will feel that is impossible if he is not listened to again on the issue of recruitment. He has argued for more than a year that he needs to improve a squad that still relies heavily on the same players who won promotion from the Championship in 2017.