According to reports from the Northern Echo, Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez is desperately looking to get rid of Tim Krul, Achraaf Lazaar, Massadio Haidara, Grant Hanley, Jack Colback, Henri Saivet and Emmanuel Riviere.
Newcastle United have struggled to bring in their top targets this summer and on the other side of the spectrum, the Magpies have also not been able to get rid of the players that are surplus to requirements at St. James’ Park.
It is believed that Benitez will first have to offload players before bringing anyone new to the club and the Spaniard recently launched an astonishing attack on the quality of his squad by stating that he is still working with a lot of Championship level players and is keen on getting rid of them as soon as possible.
He had said, “The transfer window is open, but we were coming from the Championship and when we were in the Championship we knew we had to sign players for the Championship. Now we have to move some players.
“We have to wait until September 1 and we know things will be different. We are working on moving players out and moving players in. When you have so many days and weeks, and so many players around, it is not easy. We have players who we know will leave, but they are still around. That is not easy.
“Some teams need two or three players because they were already in the Premier League, but we are coming from the Championship and need more players.”
Now according to the Northern Echo, the ‘Championship-level’ players Benitez is currently looking to offload are Tim Krul, Achraaf Lazaar, Massadio Haidara, Grant Hanley, Jack Colback, Henri Saivet and Emmanuel Riviere.
All the aforementioned seven players have not featured at all for Newcastle this season and it is believed that Benitez is actively looking to offload them as he wants to focus on bringing in new players instead.
Sadly Rafa has players still around from previous managers, thats the downside of long contracts . We can only have a squad of 25 for the PL, which is basically 2 players per position plus say an extra keeper, centre back and striker. We are overloaded with ordinary players but in key positions still struggle, eg top keeper, left back, centre midfield and top striker. The Le Jeune injury has not helped, nor has Shelvey. He may need to revisit formation if we cannot get a decent left back ie play 3 CB and wing backs. Everyone wants a top striker but they come at a premium which , alas, Ashley will not/cannot sanction. No cover either for Shelvey, our squad is still heavily championship winning, but PL losing….
Ivor Clark(Quote)
Good news from Holland (i live their) is that Siem de jong is expected too return too Ajax in the next 48 Hours on a permanent deal . Its breaking on a few different dutch sites . Ajax have plenty of cash seen as they have flogged a fair few players for very big sums of money . This one is for real i reckon .
Life is Black and White(Quote)