Report: Newcastle's Benitez would be receptive to job offers

There's reportedly trouble on Tyneside.

Angry over Newcastle United's transfers, Rafael Benitez is open to job offers, according to the Guardian's Louise Taylor. Rafa apparently "lost virtually all trust in Mike Ashley's regime," Taylor writes, and would seriously consider West Ham United if Slaven Bilic was to go. The Spanish manager would allegedly welcome offers of employment from Premier League clubs of similar size to Newcastle.

Though Benitez reportedly won't walk out, he is "angry, deeply frustrated, and ready to contemplate life" at another club. A clause in Rafa's contract apparently stipulates that the Magpies must be paid £5 million to £6 million to trigger the tactician's release, and Ashley's expected to be uncompromising in the event of negotiating an exit. The owner of Sports Direct is allegedly more likely to force a resignation than allow a rival club to speak with the Al the Toy Collector lookalike, as he believes Benitez increases the club's brand value and could even aid his efforts to eventually sell Newcastle.

Benitez and Ashley's only meeting this year reportedly took place in May, and the two do not speak on the telephone - Lee Charnley, Newcastle's managing director, acts as a middleman.

The manager gave a candid press conference last Friday in which Keith Bishop, Ashley's public-relations adviser, was absent. Benitez said: "Last year we signed players for the Championship and made a profit but after promotion you have to change the players, which makes you busier than established Premier League teams. We have to improve the team but I am signing the players I can, not the players that I want - although that doesn't mean I don't like the players I have. The reality is that, if you cannot pay £25 million, you have to go for a different kind of player. To buy quality you have to pay; we haven't done that."

Newcastle's signings in the summer transfer window included Jacob Murphy, Florian Lejeune, Christian Atsu, Joselu, and Javier Manquillo.