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Rafa Benitez hopes his “football vision” will eventually be adopted at Newcastle United.

This would, in his view, allow a profit to be made off the field, but the primary focus of the club would be on fo`otballing matters and achieving success on the pitch.

The Spaniard does not believe the two are mutually exclusive, and he presented a business plan to owner Mike Ashley outlining how he believed the Magpies could implement such a strategy back in May.

However, the summer window has not progressed as Benitez envisioned - despite a seemingly positive face-to-face meeting with Ashley three months ago - and the Newcastle boss has been forced to reassess his transfer targets over the last six weeks.

(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)

Interestingly, though Benitez stressed he is going to embrace the challenge of keeping the Magpies in the Premier League this season, he refuted the suggestion he was attempting to install a new “project” at St James’ Park.

Instead he stated that he wanted to leave Newcastle in a better shape when he eventually departs, “whenever that is”. Though this was an ambiguous remark about the length of time he will stay on Tyneside, it must be noted there was no suggestion at all that Benitez is about to depart.

“When I said I would stay it was because of the city, the fans, the stature of the club, the Premier League, close to my family,” Benitez explained when asked why he chose to stay rather than seek a simpler life elsewhere.

(Image: PA)

“We won the Championship and we made £30million profit. I had a meeting with Mike and I was expecting we could be in a better position than we are now. We are not.

“We will see if we can improve as much as we can this week. I will try to do my job.

“How much can I improve the team? It depends on how well we work and how much the players can learn.

“My aim is trying to improve things, so when I leave, whenever it is, I would like to be sure that the team and the football club will be better.

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“Normally, managers talk about projects saying they need four or five years. I’m not talking about that, because you never know in football.

“But when we came here we knew there were some issues and we had to improve things. I am sure we have improved some things. But we need to improve more.

“What I want is that we have a football vision and allow the business to also be productive and make a profit, but football has to be a priority.

“Don’t forget, I went to Real Madrid - there was no project - Napoli, Inter, no project.

“In England you can talk about that, when I went to Liverpool we said: ‘Oh, in three years we can start challenging for titles.’

“In Europe it is more difficult to do that. This [Newcastle] is a club that has potential and we will try to reach that.”

Newcastle host West Ham United on Saturday afternoon, with both sides still winless in the Premier League.

It is already being billed as a very-important clash, given that there is a two-week international break to follow, but Benitez retains confidence that Newcastle will improve soon and prove they can be competitive in the Premier League.

“You can control what you can control. Then we have to be sure that the players after September 1 realise this is the squad that we have,” Benitez added.

“Can we improve? Can we improve the set pieces? Can we improve everything?

“The way we do things - in my experience, some things you can change, but sometimes you need more time.

“I know where we are. I am trying to work with these limitations, trying to do our best.

“I do not want to come back to whether or not I am happy. Mike gave an interview and was very clear: ‘So I did not give enough money to Rafa. I didn’t do it.’

“Why? It was very clear. I know the position and now I have to try to improve the team and we have some days to do it. Then we will see after, how much the team can improve.”