Rafa Benitez says Mike Ashley is welcome at training ground after complaints over no invite from owner

Benitez and Ashley are said to not be in direct contact and there are claims the owner has never been invited to training

Rafa Benitez has played down any alleged rift with Newcastle chairman Mike Ashley and says that he is always welcome at the training ground after reports emerged that the club’s owner was unhappy at never being invited.

The pair are said to not be on speaking terms and only communicate through managing director Lee Charnley.

Suggestions on Friday morning were that Ashley is unhappy that Benitez has not invited him to a training session, but the Spaniard says he is always welcome.

Benitez says that Ashley is always welcome at the training ground (Getty)

“The owner is the owner and he is always welcome here,” Benitez said. “We are a professional club who are open to anyone. He can come here whenever he wants. We have no problems.”

Benitez’s contract expires at the end of the season and the popular manager has repeatedly expressed his dismay at the lack of transfer funds available to him from the owner.

The former Real Madrid, Chelsea and Liverpool manager is also facing a battle to keep senior figures in his squad in line. Jamaal Lascelles was made to watch Newcastle’s 2-1 defeat against Chelsea from the stands after airing his views on tactics in a training session, and it was reported that the captain and Matt Ritchie had to be separated following a heated argument.

The pair have made up and Bentiez is now keen to use the situation as a way of developing a competitive edge.

“As a manager you want professionals who care. Every year you have two or three situations because we have competitive professionals who want to win. I think it’s very positive,” he said.

Jonjo Shelvey and Ritchie both have injuries which rule them out of Saturday’s match against Manchester City, who are expected to win with little resistance. This means that Newcastle are likely to sit deep and defend for a draw in a similar way to what they attempted against Chelsea, although it ultimately failed and attracted criticism.

Benitez says he has a competitive squad (Getty)

To make matters worse, Newcastle have failed to win in their opening three games and were dumped out of the Carabao Cup by Championship Nottingham Forest in midweek having had just one shot on target.

“We had to analyse why we lost to a lower-division team,” said Benitez. “We did not play in the way we wanted. We were unlucky with decisions, but I have to protect my players. I have to use my squad if we’re going to be competitive in the Premier League. We’re disappointed to be out of the cup

“We’ve been quite good vs big teams. They have top-class players who can make the difference, so everything has to be perfect if we want a result. You have to have ambition, but you have to be realistic. If we want to stay in Premier League we have to manage expectations.”