RAFAEL BENITEZ wants to see greater progress on the transfer front over the next fortnight after gaining greater control of Newcastle United’s recruitment plans.

The departure of chief scout Graham Carr on Wednesday means Benitez has more power in terms of the players he wants to attract to St James’ Park.

The Newcastle boss has maintained a healthy working relationship with managing director Lee Charnley throughout, but the exit of Carr has helped Benitez’s cause.

Now the former Liverpool boss wants to see greater progress, having only signed Christian Atsu – who spent last season on loan on Tyneside – so far for £6.2m from Chelsea.

An £8.7m deal for Eibar defender Florian Lejeune is close, while he has retained an interest in Napoli keeper Pepe Reina while his contract wrangle continues at the Italian club.

It has also emerged in the last 48 hours Newcastle have been keen on Benfica midfielder Andreas Samaris too. The defensive playmaker would not come cheap, with claims Benitez is pushing for a £17.5m transfer.

Samaris is one of a number of players to have been linked to Newcastle since they sealed promotion back to the Premier League.

But progress on the recruitment front has been much slower than anticipated, even though Benitez has been granted plenty of money to spend to prepare the squad for top-flight football.

Newcastle are set to miss out on Chelsea youngster Tammy Abraham because Swansea City are prepared to guarantee the England Under-21s striker more playing time.

But Newcastle skipper Jamaal Lascelles is still excited about what lie ahead this summer, and thinks Benitez will make the necessary additions to make Newcastle a force to be reckoned with.

“It’s going to be nice to see who we bring in as well - everyone has said they’re really looking forward to it," the 23-year-old told nufcTV.

“We’ve got a lot of positive things to come and we just need to make sure we start off flying and we’re not trying to play catch-up when we come back [for pre-season].

He added: “We’re all looking forward to the start of the season, we all believe we can do really well, and hopefully the manager can bring in some good players to strengthen us even more.”

Newcastle owner Mike Ashley, meanwhile, no longer has the distraction of having a say in things at Rangers north of the border.

Ashley has sold all of his shares at Ibrox ending his involvement with the Scottish Premier League side.

The sportswear business tycoon has seen half of his shares snapped up by fan group Club 1872 and the other half have gone to to Hong Kong-based investor Julian Wolhardt.