RAFAEL BENITEZ insists he takes no pleasure from his constant clashes with Mike Ashley over transfer spending, but the Newcastle United manager is adamant he will continue to fight his corner if he believes it is in the best interests of the club.

Benitez’s representatives are due to hold further contract discussions with the Newcastle hierarchy shortly, with the Spaniard’s current deal due to expire in just over 12 months’ time, although there have been no developments in the last seven days.

Benitez, who has been linked with both Napoli and Leicester City in recent weeks, is keen to get the situation resolved as quickly as possible, and is also keen to meet Ashley to discuss a transfer budget for the summer.

The scale of Newcastle’s spending has been a major bone of contention in each of the last two transfer windows, and with Ashley still keen to sell up, there is every chance of further clashes this summer.

Benitez also fell out with Liverpool’s owners during his time at Anfield, but while he is clearly adept at handling the political side of football management, the Newcastle boss claims he does not enjoy the repeated wrangles over money. However, he will not be backing down this summer as he looks to secure a big enough budget to enable him to compete with some of the sides currently sitting above the Magpies in the top half of the table.

“I don’t really enjoy the negotiating,” said Benitez. “I would be happier just thinking about my team, my players, the tactics, analysing other teams and improving players. But in modern football and especially in the Premier League, the budget is crucial.

“You see a club like Man City, an amazing coach with an amazing team and they could not win last year. They had to spend a lot of money to win. The reality is with the prices in the market now, you need the money to compete.

“Sometimes people think (Benitez’s negotiating) is a negative, but I think it is a positive because it means you care. I am not thinking about myself. When you have experience, you try to do your best for your team, for your club, for your fans.

“When I say I have ambition and I want to win something, it is because the fans also have that ambition to win something. I did not come here after so many games and so many titles just to say, ‘Okay, we will see what happens’. I want to compete, try to win and everyone has the same feeling. We have the potential to do that. So I fight to do the right things.”

Ideally, Benitez would like to bring in four or five new signings this summer, with a centre-forward and a centre-half likely to be his key priorities.

A number of fringe players will leave, with Aleksandar Mitrovic, Jack Colback and Matz Sels all available for transfer once their current loan deals come to an end, and both Massadio Haidara and Jesus Gamez set to leave St James’ Park as free agents this summer.

However, that would still leave Benitez presiding over a sizeable squad, and the Magpies manager accepts he could have to sell a number of players who have been involved with the first team in order to make space for new additions.

Dwight Gayle could be vulnerable despite his impressive performances in the last couple of months, while Ciaran Clark, Mikel Merino and Isaac Hayden have all found themselves on the edge of the first-team picture in the second half of the season.

“The ideal situation is to have around 22 players maybe, and then three players from the academy that have the potential to do well,” said Benitez. “That is the ideal situation. Can we do that? I don’t think we can do that at the moment, so we have to manage.

“Some of the players that are already here, they have to stay. But what you need is more quality in the squad to be sure you have 20 or whatever that can play any game. It’s not that it’s a big difference between them.

“Some of the players will need some time if they are young players during the season. But you have to have more players now that they can play. And because we know the players much better, we can make the right decision with this group of players.”