KARL DARLOW has claimed Newcastle United will start next season as promotion favourites provided they retain the majority of their current squad.

With Rafael Benitez expected to confirm his intention to remain as manager later this week, thoughts are turning towards life in the Championship.

Benitez has identified a number of potential additions, with QPR defender Steven Caulker and Bournemouth forward Lee Tomlin understood to be early targets, and accepts there will be a need to sell a number of the club’s highest-earning players.

However, the Spaniard has told Lee Charnley and Mike Ashley that he is not prepared to oversee a wholesale break-up of the current squad, and Darlow agrees it is important to retain as many of the club’s current players as possible.

The goalkeeper boasts extensive experience of the second tier having made more than 100 Championship appearances during his five-year spell with Nottingham Forest, and while he accepts next season will present plenty of challenges, he is confident the current squad would be able to cope.

“I’ve got a lot of experience in the Championship, and it’s a very tough league,” said Darlow, who played in the final eight games of last season following an injury to Rob Elliot. “Every game is a mental test, and every game is a scrap.

“You play Tuesday nights at difficult places, and it’s about grinding out results more than anything else really. It’s hard to look at the bigger picture when you’re in that league – it’s about grinding out results and trying to build momentum.

“But the quality we’ve got in this squad is far superior to anything else in the Championship and that should stand us in good stead. If we can keep what we’ve got, and also keep the manager, then we should be fine.”

When Newcastle last dropped into the Championship in 2009, the character displayed by the likes of Kevin Nolan, Joey Barton, Jonas Gutierrez and Andy Carroll was crucial to the club’s successful promotion at the first time of asking.

This time around, there does not appear to be such a strong core, but while Darlow agrees that attitude will be important next season, he claims the value of having a high level of technical ability should not be overlooked.

“There’ll be a lot of talk about character and attitude, but ability is important as well,” he said. “Over the course of a season, the best teams will come to the top and we have to remember that. If we can keep the quality that we’ve got, then we should be able to go through that league.

“We might need to add a few because you need a bigger squad. The matches take their toll when you’re playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday. It’ll be interesting to see what happens, but it’s up to the board and the manager to see what they want to do player wise. If we keep the majority of the lads here, I don’t think we’ll have a problem next year.”

Retaining Benitez would be a massive statement of intent, and while there were no fresh developments this weekend, it is still anticipated that the former Chelsea and Liverpool boss will conclude his discussions with Charnley and Ashley later this week.

Fears of a blockbuster offer from elsewhere have not materialised, and Benitez, who was at Stanley Park, Liverpool, yesterday attending the ‘Run for the 96’ in honour of the victims of the Hillsborough disaster, is close to finalising the legal technicalities involved in rewriting his three-year deal.

“It was a massive lift all around the city when he (Benitez) came in,” said Darlow. “It meant a lot within the changing room that a manager of that calibre came in to Newcastle United to try to keep us up when he had no reason to come really. Keeping hold of him would be a massive coup and we’re all really desperate for him to stay.”