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Rafa Benitez stated just 12 months ago that he’d happily stay at Newcastle United for 10 years.

As Newcastle close in on top flight safety the Toon chief has re-iterated that vow again providing the conditions are right.

After winning promotion back to the Premier League, the hope was that the Magpies would enjoy a good summer spending spree and lay the foundations for a brighter future at St James’ Park.

What happened instead has left Benitez’s position uncertain at times with back-to-back transfer windows laden with missed targets and disappointments.

(Image: Newcastle United)

That went alongside a haphazard and ultimately fruitless sale auction at a club that has turned into a yo-yo side under the guidance of Mike Ashley in the last decade or so.

Even now, with United on the brink of safety, Benitez and the supporters still don’t know the intentions of Ashley going forward.

The club is still up for sale but Ashley is yet to update fans on where he stands as we go into another season after none of the potential buyers wooed him enough to cash in.

As Benitez goes into battle with Arsene Wenger, the Premier League’s longest-serving boss, he was asked if he is still open to staying on Tyneside for a decade.

He replied: “Yes. What I say is you need a project.

“Coming from Spain – and I have been in different countries – a project is nice, it’s a good word for just getting some time.

“But at the same time, you have to do something.

“I like to work with young players, I like to improve young players, but I like to win.

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“I want to be competitive and I want to win.

“You have to have a mix of young players and players with experience – that means you have to spend some money because if not, you cannot compete now and win something.

“But you have to invest in your Academy and your training facilities, everything to improve the club and improve the project.

“I would like to stay a lot of years at any club, but if they want to be competitive and they want to progress, yes.

“But it’s very easy to say that and after, you have to do it.

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“They talk about young managers, but I have seen a lot of managers talking about projects doing nothing, so I want to talk about projects doing something, working every day in the way that we work here.”

Benitez left Liverpool because of a change of owner and stated he could have easily stayed at Anfield as long as Wenger has been at Arsenal.

The Toon boss added: “Yes, for sure.

“The Liverpool fans and the Newcastle United fans, you can see the similarities.

“I was thinking about that when I was at Liverpool because everything was going well, but the change of owners in football now changes everything.

“Even if you are doing a good job, change the owner, change managers, change philosophy or strategy, so it’s very difficult now in football to have a manager so many years at any team, but especially at a top side.

“Today I was reading an article about the noisiest fans in the league – when you have all these things in place and then you are winning, you want to stay there forever.”

If Ashley was reading off the same page as Benitez the mind boggles at what could be achieved at Newcastle in such a lengthy time frame.

Benitez went on: “The point when you take about the Academy is it always takes some time.

“But at the same time, you know you cannot find a lot of young good players anywhere, and if you find some of them, the top sides will pay and they will get them.

“It’s not, ‘We have 10 players, we will be successful’.

“No, because if you have 10 fairly good players in the Academy, five will go after one year because someone comes with a big offer and the agent or the parents say, ‘We will go there’.

(Image: PA)

“You have to create a structure that will allow you to get some players every year, one player for the squad.

“Liverpool is the team that I know best.

“To have a player like Steven Gerrard, you can get one every 20 years, maybe, but you have to have one player that can be part of the squad.

“Then if you are lucky enough in 10 years, you have Gerrard.

“Fine, but you have 10 players who can be part of the squad.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

“That is the key if you want to save money, have some heart and some passion with your local players, and at the same time have the possibility to spend some of the money that you are saving by not paying big money for these players.

“You are saving this money to sign the top scorer in Europe, whatever.

“That is a project, that is something that you have to do.

“But you have to have in mind that you have to improve the Academy, you have to improve the facilities, you have to attract people with that and at the same time, you have to sign some senior players to give confidence to the others and to make the difference.”