Rafa Benitez has told Newcastle United he will not discuss extending his contract at the club until after the January transfer window as he wants to focus on new signings.

Benitez still has 18 months to run on his current deal and although there is a desire to extend that from the club’s point of view, he is more concerned with making sure they stick to the promise to back him in the transfer market this month.

The Spaniard earns around £6m-a-year on Tyneside, but his relationship with owner Mike Ashley has been a strained one for the last 12 months, as Benitez feels promises made to him over player recruitment were at best misleading.

It was around this time last year that things began to unravel when Benitez believed he had a deal in place to sign Andros Townsend from Crystal Palace, only for the club to fail to make it happen, even though he was confident everything was in place for the winger to return to the North East.

The former Liverpool and Real Madrid manager is therefore cautious when it comes to the idea of pledging his long-term future to the club and will wait to see what happens in terms of signings this month before he holds any talks about his own position.