Rafa Benitez has been absent from Newcastle’s training ground, and dug-out, for a week.
With any luck he’ll be back at work later this week feeling reinvigorated, after a minor hernia operation left him in severe pain.
It will be a chance for him to change the negative narrative that has loomed around Newcastle all summer.
There are genuine concerns about the summer transfer activity. His squad was left short of star dust.
Hope that Mike Ashley would provide the platform he demanded has erroded.
There are worries over his Newcastle future after he said it wasn’t a “long term project” anymore.
But how long can a manager let those nagging, frustations fester?
Sure they’ll resurface as January approaches, and towards the end of the season when Benitez’s future will become a huge issue again.
But for now Benitez has to grasp the renewed momentum that his squad have created.
Newcastle hadn’t won consecutive league games since December 2015 until they beat West Ham and Swansea.
They’ve done so showing resilience and organisation that a great coach like Benitez fosters – even in his absence from the touchline he pulled the strings.
The players have tackled and blocked and thrown themselves into challenges when the game was flowing against them.
The unity and spirit that carried them to promotion was flickering. Players are demanding better from each other – creating positive tension and challenge.
Newcastle’s squad certainly has limitations, but it it showing elements to build on that suggest it will survive in the top flight and could, just could, push towards mid table.
Newcastle were included in the “strugglers” section of MirrorFootball’s podcast which I took part in this week.
That surprised me when so many other clubs are making a hash of their opening games – Bournemouth (much lauded in the summer), Crystal Palace (big name new boss now sacked), and West Ham.
It got me thinking how much the negativity caused by Benitez’s justified moans about the summer, had caused his club to lurch towards being among the crisis clubs of the league.
A couple of wins has eased that tension , and it is refreshing to see sparky players like Jamaal Lascelles, Ciaran Clark and Matt Ritchie lead the fight back and start to change Newcastle’s “story”.
At his best Benitez can make this season one of over-achievement, building a platform to push on next summer.
There will of course be difficult times, but they can be weathered by Benitez drilling United into an outfit that scraps, and that opponents know will be dogged.
Much of the debate around the transfer window would have been silenced if they’d spent £30m on a striker, and bust their transfer record.
Instead they got Joselu from Stoke for £5m – yet he’s been good so far.
They got Mikel Merino from Dortmund, perpetual motion in midfield, who looks like he can become a star.
Players who Benitez wasn’t sure would help United kick on, can now prove him wrong.
With a bit of optimism, and a few more good results, Benitez can turn negatives into a positive story if he wants to.
It won’t mean he was incorrect to push Mike Ashley for more in the summer. Or to keep challenging the club to think bigger and better.
But it would help relieve the pressure that builds on Tyneside when a manager is unhappy and a fan-base restless.
If Benitez can get Newcastle on a roll, and making the best of what he’s got, he’ll be loved even more than he is now.