RAFAEL BENITEZ admits it is essential Newcastle United move out as many of their unwanted players as possible before the transfer window closes next Thursday.

Benitez remains hopeful of making two or three additions of his own ahead of the transfer deadline, but his ability to recruit players is heavily dependent on what happens in terms of outgoings.

The likes of Tim Krul, Achraaf Lazaar, Massadio Haidara, Grant Hanley, Jack Colback, Henri Saivet and Emmanuel Riviere are still on Newcastle’s books, even though they have next to no chance of being involved in the first team this season.

Newcastle officials are desperately trying to move on as many of those players as possible, and Ashley accepts their success or failure will impact on his ability to land some of his own targets in the next few days.

“The transfer window is open, but we were coming from the Championship and when we were in the Championship we knew we had to sign players for the Championship,” said Benitez. “Now we have to move some players.

“We have to wait until September 1 and we know things will be different. We are working on moving players out and moving players in.

“When you have so many days and weeks, and so many players around, it is not easy. We have players who we know will leave, but they are still around. That is not easy.

“Some teams need two or three players because they were already in the Premier League, but we are coming from the Championship and need more players.”

Benitez was in an extremely downbeat mood in the wake of Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at Huddersfield, but claims his despondent attitude reflected his disappointment at the result at the John Smith’s Stadium rather than a wider dissatisfaction with life at Newcastle.

A number of pundits have accused Benitez of being too negative this summer, but the Spaniard claims his mood will change once his side get back to winning ways.

“Every training session you talk about what is wrong and right, and I can see a lot of positives from this team,” he said. “It is a learning process, but I am quite confident and positive they can do it.

“They know we have to keep working hard and they know we will improve. They are quite confident we will do it soon and the key to football is to do it sooner rather than later.

“Winning games would make everything more positive. The majority of the players were working with us last year and know how we work. It is more difficult in the Premier League but it is still the same methodology that has been working for years.”

Newcastle return to action tomorrow when they host Nottingham Forest in the second round of the Carabao Cup, and Benitez is set to make changes in order to protect some of his players ahead of next weekend’s game with West Ham.

Dan Barlaser has been promoted to the first-team squad from the academy set-up, while Jacob Murphy, Mo Diame, Joselu and Aleksandar Mitrovic could also start after finding themselves on the bench last weekend.

“We tried to do well in the cup competitions last year, but I didn’t lie last year and I won’t this year,” said Benitez. “We have to use the squad. We have to try to progress, and if we can, it means we are strong enough to go through, if we cannot, we cannot.”