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Newcastle United may have been relegated to the Championship but Rafa Benitez’s decision to commit to the club and sign a redrawn three-year contract has ensured optimism and positivity has returned to Tyneside.

That renegotiated contract handed the Spaniard full “control of footballing matters” at the club and Benitez’s decision to stay helped to greatly soften the painful blow of demotion.

At his second unveiling, the 56-year-old spoke of his determination to achieve promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt, and he also promised to build a squad who were more than capable of performing in the Championship in 2016-17.

The former Real Madrid, Chelsea and Liverpool boss is already well on his way to finalising the Magpies’ pre-season plans, and he has also started to sound out potential transfer targets for next season.

Crucially, the Newcastle boss is determined to keep supporters firmly in the loop about all his plans at the club and to keep them abreast of the changes that are afoot.

During the first half of The Chronicle’s exclusive two-part Q & A with Benitez, the Spaniard

discussed what he has been up to since his appointment, his plans for the club’s training ground and Academy, when he expects to make a breakthrough in the transfer market and how he will deal with players requesting to leave.

Here, in the second half, Benitez examines Newcastle’s budget for the summer, the type of player he will be looking to recruit ahead of the Championship campaign, whether he will dip into the foreign market, and the overwhelming love he has felt from Magpies supporters ever since he arrived and then again once he recommitted to the club...

Question: What is the budget? And will that budget be buffered if players are sold?

Benitez replies: “Again, I will say it is dangerous to talk about the budget.

“If we talk about the budget in public then every club and every agent knows how much you have to spend.

“That doesn’t help Newcastle United.

“We have money to spend where we need to and we don’t have to sell, so we are in a very strong position.”

Question: What type of players are you looking for? Seasoned Championship players? And in which positions?

Benitez responds: “We have to think about the type of player who is best for the Championship, because everybody knows it is a very different league, more physical and it is tougher in different ways than the Premier League.

“But also we cannot just focus on building a strong squad for the Championship, because we hope we will only be there for one season; we have to build a squad that we are confident can help us out of the Championship and then can perform also strongly in the Premier League.

“Having experience of playing in the Championship can be important, but it is important to have a mix of players who can each bring different qualities to the team.

“Mentality, experience, skill, determination, how everyone works together for the team, all these things are important.

“I think I don’t need to talk about specific positions.

“Our fans are very knowledgeable, they will know which positions we need to strengthen, just like we know.

“We are working to strengthen positions in which we are weak, of course.

“We have our priorities, we have our targets and we are making very good progress behind the doors.”

Question: Will you be looking to dip into the foreign market as well? Will you be using your connections abroad?

Benitez answers: “I don’t care where a player is from, just that he is the right player for Newcastle United and for the squad that we want to build.

“I have good connections abroad and I am using those connections and working with Lee and with Graham [Carr], it is a good partnership and I said before we are making very good progress.”

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Question: What have you made of the reaction of fans since you committed to stay following relegation? Did the enormous support for The Chronicle’s petition surprise you?

Benitez replies: “I knew about the Geordie fans before I came here, everyone in football knows about their passion and their support.

“But it was incredible to experience it and to feel the love they have for the club and the welcome and support they gave me and the team.

“They did not have an easy season but they are always supporting.

“It was very emotional for me.

“The fans make a very big difference - to me, to the team on the pitch, to the whole city.

“They have been amazing, really amazing.

“The fans are very special, they are what Newcastle United is about, they make the club what it is.

“I want to give them joy and excitement and pride in their club, a reason to celebrate and to smile.”