The greatest Rafa Benitez miracle at Newcastle United – The £30m player | OneFootball

Rafa Benitez will always be welcome on Tyneside.

A manager who did an incredible job in the most difficult of circumstances under Mike Ashley.

Indeed, amongst the many other positives he brought to St James’ Park, we still see the Rafa Benitez legacy in the current Newcastle United squad, so many years later.

With so little money to spend, Rafa Benitez produced outstanding value for money signings who are still playing for Newcastle United this season, such as Fabian Schar (£3m) and Martin Dubravka (£4m) who will start against Crystal Palace.

Jacob Murphy (£10m) another great signing now he has developed, especially his confidence, whilst Rafa Benitez also brought through Sean Longstaff. Miguel Almiron more expensive at £20m but what a signing he has proved to be for so many seasons, plus even if Newcastle decided to sell him this summer, every chance Miggy would still generate a higher transfer fee than what Rafa Benitez paid five years ago.

Many other inspired signings that have given Newcastle United great service, such as Matt Ritchie (£12m) who is still at the club. Whilst £5m for Stoke City reserve Joselu, who now finds himself playing for both Real Madrid and Spain!

However, the greatest miracle achieved by Rafa Benitez, was surely when he created the £30m Ayoze Perez.

Perez had been a canny player for Newcastle United after arriving in summer 2015, he scored six goals in the Premier League 2015/16 relegation season. Then under Rafa Benitez it was nine goals in the 2016/17 Championship season and eight in the 2017/18 Premier League, as Joselu and Dwight Gayle played unselfish roles.

Though even when we reached 2019 and what would prove the final months of Rafa’s stay at NUFC, Ayoze Perez was still only a £10m-£15m rated player at the very most.

However, on 4 July 2019, only days after Mike Ashley finally forced Rafa Benitez out of the club, Newcastle United received £30m (£THIRTYm) for Ayoze Perez.

Miguel Almiron had arrived on 31 January 2019, the first player Rafa Benitez had been allowed to sign for over £10m in the four transfer windows after getting promotion as champions back to the Premier League.

The Paraguayan’s signing helped connect a lot of dots and Newcastle were suddenly transformed into a far more effective attacking unit.

The final 13 PL games saw Newcastle score 21 goals, the same number they had scored in the opening 25 matches.

Almiron and Rondon were outstanding and helped create the platform for Ayoze Perez to score nine goals in his final 12 Premier League games with Newcastle United, making it 12 goals in all in that 2018/19 Premier League season for Perez. The Spaniard had never ever managed double figures in the league at any level of football AND hasn’t done since then.

Rafa Benitez somehow turning Ayoze Perez into a commodity that Leicester City were willing to pay £30m for, quite incredible.

In the two and a half weeks in between forcing Rafa Benitez and agreeing compensation (PAYING COMPENSATION!!!) with Sheffield Wednesday for stooge Steve Bruce, Mike Ashley sold future Real Madrid and Spain striker Joselu for £2m, as well as banking the £30m when Leicester paid that release clause.

Ayoze Perez speaking to The Athletic after moving to Leicester City – 5 August 2019:

“Rafa was key. He was a big factor when he stayed at the club. I knew we were going to be great playing under Rafa, and we were. We made it back as champions. The next two seasons after that were great as well.

“The ambition of the club (Leicester) and the way they are doing the right things was very important in my decision. Also, as soon as Rafa left the decision was easier.

“Things could be done better over there at Newcastle, but Leicester have given me the opportunity to do great things hopefully. There is big ambition. I think how football works, the way you have to look at football, that is the difference between Leicester and Newcastle. There is big motivation here to keep growing and to get better here at Leicester. I didn’t feel they had it at Newcastle.”

If I’m honest, whether Rafa Benitez left or not, £30m was incredible to bank for Ayoze Perez. All thanks to Rafa of course that Ashley hoovered up some £20m more than Perez was really worth. Benitez making him look a far better player with those final goalscoring months, than he was in reality.

That shown by his move to Leicester, for £30m and a four year contract on significant wages, the Foxes in return got 50 Premier League starts and 12 PL goals.

The final half season of that four year Leicester contract saw Ayoze Perez move on loan to Real Betis before that became permanent at the end of that loan spell last summer.

Now heading towards his 31st birthday this summer, Ayoze Perez finally showing some of that ‘£30m’ form once again, or at least something kind of getting close to it…

After these past three seasons seeing returns in league goals of two, two and three, with six goals so far for Real Betis this season, a major improvement. The latest two goals came in Sunday’s vital win over Valencia, taking Real Betis into seventh and a point above Valencia. Real Betis and Ayoze Perez now dreaming of top six in La Liga, as they are only three points adrift now of sixth place Real Sociedad, Alexander Isak’s former club and Mikel Merino’s current one.

Leicester City never received a penny back on that £30m Rafa Benitez inspired transfer fee that they paid Newcastle United and indeed, when you look at the financial issues that the Foxes have now ran into, those massive overspends in transfer fees for the likes of Ayoze Perez (£30m), Islam Slimani (£30m), Kelechi Iheanacho (£25m) and Patson Daka (£27m), as well as others, have been a massive factor.