Rafa Benitez would need to pay £5m to quit Newcastle and is reluctant to leave fans, players and staff in limbo

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Rafa Benitez faces a £5million block preventing him from walking out on the Newcastle job, which means he is likely to stay for now even though relations with the board and owner Mike Ashley have been damaged seemingly beyond repair after the transfer window.

Benitez has two more years left on the £5m-a-year deal he signed in 2016 and would have to pay the compensation if he were to walk out now. 

Unless a club offers Newcastle compensation to release Benitez from his contract, it is unlikely Ashley would allow him to go.

Rafa Benitez will have to pay £5m in compensation to escape his contract with Newcastle

The Spaniard is unhappy after receiving little financial support in the summer transfer market

It means Benitez is effectively stuck at the club for now with a wholly dysfunctional relationship with the board and is expected to do the best job he can keeping Newcastle in the Premier League despite the lack of investment, something he expected and believed had been promised over the summer.

Benitez also feels an obligation to those players whom he did persuade to come to Newcastle, particularly players such as Florian Lejuene, who moved to the UK on the basis that the Spaniard would be in charge.

His relationship with owner Mike Ashley may have been damaged beyond repair

He and his staff are also overwhelmed by the welcome they have received in Newcastle and have been loath to leave the club in limbo this season because it would mean letting down fans and staff. 

However, it is hard to envisage any reconciliation between Ashley and Benitez and long term it would appear that West Ham are the club most likely to move, with Slaven Bilic's deal running out next summer. 

Benitez was 24 hours away from signing for West Ham in 2015 before Real Madrid asked him to be manager and Bilic subsequently got the job.