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Rafa Benitez says it has NEVER crossed his mind to leave Newcastle this summer.

And in an interview that sets out his commitment to Newcastle he says:

– His disappointment at the club has not dimmed his desire to turn United into a force

– He is ready to move on from the summer disappointment

– He owes it to the players who signed because of him to stay

– He is a man of his word, who turned down an offer from Real Madrid to stay at Liverpool

(Image: Newcastle United)

Benitez wants AT LEAST three more players including a striker, but he fears the Lucas Perez deal is slipping away from him as the club wait to transfer fees to drop in the final days of the transfer window. The United boss is clearly frustrated and feels that the club have lost momentum and players in a disappointing summer.

But ahead of the Spurs game on Sunday he offered his clearest sign yet that he will stay at Newcastle regardless of what is to come next.

Asked whether he ever thought of resigning he said: “No. What I said before was the truth. From the beginning I was working very hard trying to get the targets that we had and we couldn’t do it and then I was asking why?

“So you have to put everything together. I said, ‘We have this problem, this one, this one, this one – what do you want to do? And I said I want to stay’.

“I want to stay because we fought so hard to be here. We have a city behind the team, a city behind you and your team. I said, ‘Listen, it is a pity, so we will try to do our best’, and still you are pushing and trying to change things and do things in a normal way.

“I am not someone who says, ‘You have to do this...’ because it’s me. No, it’s because we have experience, we have been successful and we want to replicate this way to do things.

“If I am here and they pay me the salary that they pay me, it’s because they trust me. It’s because I have won something and we are doing things in a professional way.

“We are not demanding crazy things, we are demanding just to do things in the right way, like we did with Liverpool or with Chelsea or the other clubs where we have been.

“We are doing things in a professional way with a lot of staff working together and after, you have someone who has to make the decisions.

“In this case, I was expecting it could be like this – it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting – and then we have to be sure that in this case Lee, when I tell him, he understands why I am saying ‘I would like to do this in this way’.

“I explain things. It’s not that I don’t explain the reasons why. This way has been successful, so were trying to replicate similar things.

He said he OWES it to the players who signed because of him to stay.

Benitez said: “I will tell you something that I didn’t say before. I had two or three targets, two or three players, who wanted to come here because of me – and I don’t want to be egotistical.

“They wanted to come here because of me and I couldn’t let them down. I cannot leave people waiting for me to do something, I cannot let them down.

“I decided to stay in the Championship. I wanted to stay in the Premier League at a massive club like this one to compete at the top of the table.

“Can we do it now? I don’t know. Will it be more difficult? Yes, because we didn’t do exactly what we wanted to do.

“We are trying to improve things now in the position that we are. It’s not that we cannot – yes, we can. Will it be perfect? Difficult. But will it be good enough to give us the chance to compete and to challenge for things?

“Maybe, but I don’t know at the moment.”

Benitez is a man of his word. He has turned down big offers before.

“When I was at Liverpool, I received an offer from Real Madrid and I gave my word to Liverpool and I decided to stay. It was a massive offer and I decided to stay,” he said.

“It was a long time ago, obviously, and they were not very happy, but I was happy with my decision.

“A couple of players were asking me, ‘Will you extend your contract? Will you sign a new contract?’, and I said ‘I think so’. They were signing new contracts, both players, and they decided to stay because I gave them my word.

“In this case, you know I have my family in England. I was away and I wanted to come back to England. I decided to come to a massive club with all the potential.

“I stayed in the Championship – that was a massive risk also for me. I decided to stay because everything was so positive and in the end, I was right, everything was fine.

“Now I was expecting other things. Okay, we don’t have those things, but we have to move forward and try to do our best.

“Am I happy with what was going on during the summer? No, but I think we can improve and we can compete and we can do the right things – if we understand where we are.

“If we think we have to be in the top four and then we are fifth and we are... [shrugging] - that makes no sense. We have to be realistic and realistic means every single game for us has to be a final, we have to do our best and if we can be in the middle of the table, maybe we can see what happens at the top.

“But if we are at the bottom, we have to see what happens in the middle, so it depends where we are. We have to try to fight and be as high as possible.”