Rafa Benitez could be in the Leicester hot seat this summer which is good for Newcastle

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Leicester City parted ways with Brendan Rodgers at the weekend and now it seems former Newcastle United boss Rafa Benitez is the favourite for the job, which could be good news for Newcastle’s James Maddison pursuit.

Rafa Benitez is still highly regarded on Tyneside after the Spaniard stood up to Mike Ashley and refused to bow down to his demands when he was the boss at Newcastle. It was a bitter pill to swallow seeing him leave as he was a popular figure amongst the Toon Army, but we respected his decision to walk away as it was for the right reasons.

There was always a hope that he’d come back when the PIF takeover went through as Amanda Staveley had hinted several times that Rafa was the one she wanted to lead the new regime to glory. Unfortunately, due to all the off again on again shenanigans of the takeover, by the time the deal had gone though, Rafa was off the market.

Rafa Benitez would have no issue dealing with Newcastle

It all worked out in the end, though with Newcastle landing Eddie Howe who is doing an incredible job so far.

Now it looks like Bentiez could be in line to take the vacant Leicester City managerial spot after being offered the job according to The Leicester Mercury.

If this does indeed happen, that could be a massive positive for Newcastle who are in hot pursuit of Leicester’s star player, James Maddison.

When Rodgers was sacked my immediate thought turned to the Maddison deal and how a new boss could effectively ruin our summer. If they brought in somebody who guided the Foxes to safety and was then capable of convincing Maddison to stay it would have been a huge sucker punch for the Magpies.

Benitez could even encourage Maddison to move to the North East

However if it’s Benitez, I don’t see him standing in Maddison’s way. In fact, I see him encouraging him to come. It’s always felt like Bentiez has a soft spot for the Toon Army, and he clearly has a good relationship with Amanda Staveley, so he’s unlikely to stand in our way.

He’ll also only have nothing but good things to say to Maddison about Newcastle, further convincing him that Tyneside should be his ideal destination.