Newcastle Manager Rafa Benitez Continues to be Frustrated With Their Lack of Transfer Activity

It has been no secret that Rafa Benitez has been annoyed with the lack of funding from Newcastle's ruling elite - players deemed pivotal to his plans have been missed out on.

Now the Daily Mail reports more on Benitez's unrest and who were these particular targets. Back in May, everything seem perfect on Tyneside; Newcastle had won back promotion as champions and Mike Ashley - the owner, declared all money raised by the club would be available for transfers.

A couple of months later and it is now breaking point, players who seemed certain to become Newcastle players received higher offers from other clubs and Newcastle were left with targets not at the top of their list. 

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Two such examples, were Tammy Abraham and Willy Caballero, who at the last minute found a different club. But Geordies can rest assured that Benitez will stay, as he said: "I had two or three players, who came here because of me. They wanted to come here because of me and I couldn't let them down.

"As you know my family is in England and I decided to come to a massive club, with potential. I stayed in the Championship, which was a massive risk for me, but I stayed because everything was so positive and in the end I was right."

Mike Ashley then came out over the weekend to say that he does not have the money to compete with Manchester City and did not expect the price of players to rise so drastically.

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However, Newcastle fans know that they do not have the same funds as Qatari owners, but should be able to offer players the same as mid table teams like Swansea.

Benitez also said "We were not demanding crazy things. We were demanding to do things in the right way — like we did with Liverpool, with Chelsea and all the other clubs. With a professional staff all working together.

"This summer I was expecting other things, but okay we don't have those things, so now we have to move forward and I will do my best. Am I happy with what was going on in the summer? No, I think that we can improve and we can compete and do the right things."

The injuries of Paul Dummett and Florian Lejeune and suspension of Jonjo Shelvey might be enough to convince Ashley to part his way with further cash, although Stoke striker Joselu, is set to complete his signing in the next 48 hours.