Rafa Benitez has refused to confirm his future to Newcastle in his last press conference of the season.

Rafa told reporters who quizzed him on his future: ‘We have pre-season organised, we will go away to Ireland & then be ready. I will have more talks with the club. My job is to be sure that the players are focused for Chelsea, then my people have to talk with Lee Charnley to try & progress. We cannot give too much details on talks. We are still talking but no news yet. We have to wait, keep talking & I prepare my team for Chelsea.’

Asked whether his players want him to stay he answered: ‘Maybe tomorrow if someone wants to play on Sunday they will tell me that. But what they show on the training ground tells me they do. Everyone wants to know who is the manager & start working on that.’

Benitez is thought to earning £6.5m per year in his current three-year deal at Newcastle and his representatives are asking Mike Ashley £8m per year to extend his contract.  His contract enters the last 12 months later this month and a clause in his contract limits any compensation to £6.5m should any club come in for him.

Benitez is thought to be a short list of possible West Ham managers. for next season That list is rumoured to include David Moyes, Manuel Pellegrini, Uni Emery, Marco Silva and Thomas Tuchel in addition to Rafa Benitez.