It's a fairly low-risk, high-upside deal from his perspective. He gets paid, if he fails the problem is the club, if he succeeds against impossible odds he looks like a tactical genius. Smart career move for him. The club can blame its mistakes on him if he fails, and leverage anti-Red sentiment among the fanbase. Win-win for both parties, really.
I don't think either the club or the manager would look at it that way.
The manager gets to work in the Premiership with a squad that already has a lot of talent. He would certainly like to have been able to spend more money but realises that isn't possible in the shorter term. He has decided on the players he wants to use and certainly James seems to be the big loser but just about everybody else has been involved on the pitch at some time since the start of the season.
Next season should see the final culling of unwanted players and possibly the return of a transfer budget at some level.
The owner/club have embarked on the new stadium project, the plan is ambitious but disastrous up to the appointment of CA.
We spent huge sums of money on players that were not good enough or just a bad fit for the club.
CA bought well (with Brands) and for most of the season was well placed for a European finish.
I think they have decided the model of experienced successful manager is the template to follow and Benitez fits that completely.
The fact that he was prepared to come knowing how tight the financial constraints would be made him an even clearer choice.
The plan will be to have a top four team for the opening of the new ground... time will tell on that one.
Benitez has this season to see how each player performs, next summer we will see players leave or stay depending on how they perform this season.
There will be further huge savings on wages in twelve months as a raft of players leave and the manager will have had twelve months to convince the owners that the purse strings should be opened again.
