"For Benitez, it was money first and Newcastle last"

"If you come out and say the things he did you would think it was football club first, Rafa second, money third. I'd say it was money first, Rafa, then the club last," said Mike Ashley.

Ashley claims to be very hurt by Benitez's decision to leave the Magpies. "He took the totally soft option, took the money and went to China. That disappoints me."

A decision which Mike Ashley does not understand and share. "If he'd gone back to Real Madrid, or a top six club in the Premier League, I get it. But it was about money and all he had to do was say that from the beginning," Ashley claimed. 

In Ashley's opinion, it was always difficult to talk to Benitez because of his constant demands. "Yet every time with Rafa it was impossible – there was always another thing, and the next thing, and the next thing. He asked for a 50 per cent pay increase and I think he did that because he knew it couldn't work. And if we had agreed to that, I think it would have been something else."

That said, he defended Benitez's work as Newcastle manager. "I'm not disappointed in him as a manager – he did an excellent job. It puzzles me why any fan thinks I wouldn't want him. I'm not the thickest person on the planet. Why wouldn't I want excellence? Why wouldn't I want this manager? Accuse me or many things, but not that. We couldn't have done any more," explained the owner. 

According to Mike Ashley, he offered Benitez a very long contract renewal. "At one stage they were talking about a one-year extension and I said my preference would be for an eight-year contract. That's what I have to do in business when I invest. I have to take a medium to long-term view."

In the end, Benitez was unable to reach an agreement with Ashley and he left to join Dalian Yifang in China.