Rafa Benitez has revealed he will stay at Newcastle if Mike Ashley meets his demands to show ambition this summer.
The Magpies' manager is set to secure Premier League football on Tyneside for another year but is out of contract this summer — so their final game of the season away to relegated Fulham in a month could be his last in charge.
He has already posed a series of questions to owner Ashley and is awaiting the answers before deciding whether to walk away from a job he has held for the past three years.
Benitez told Radio Marca in his native Spain: "I am in contact with the club and I am waiting for answers to questions I have proposed to continue.
“My family is in England. Here I am content — but a series of conditions have to be met."
The man who won the European Cup as Liverpool boss 14 years ago, steered Chelsea to Europa League triumph in 2013 and has also won domestic silverware in England, Spain and Italy added: “To stay, we need to sit down, talk well about the economic possibilities of the club and what direction we’re going in.”
Newcastle sit 15th in the Premier League table with four games to go, seven points above the relegation zone.
Last summer, they made keeper Martin Dubravka's loan from Sparta Prague permanent for £4.3million, spent £6m on Swansea defender Federico Fernandez, £3m on fellow centre-back Fabian Schar of Deportivo La Coruna, added forward Yoshinori Muto from Mainz for an undisclosed fee and picked up midfielder Ki Sung Yeung, also from Swansea, on a Bosman.
What Mike Ashley's latest business problems mean for Rafa Benitez and Newcastle
In the winter window, they signed £21m midfielder Miguel Almiron from Major League Soccer champions Atlanta United — finally breaking a club transfer record that had stood since Michael Owen joined from Real Madrid in 2005.
But Benitez once again expressed his well-documented belief that the club need to do far more to reach its potential.
“We have to mix experience and youth, that is the balance we have to achieve,” he said. “English teams have a lot of economic potential and attract the best players. That’s good for big Premier League teams but it’s a drawback for teams like ours.”
