What is Rafa Benitez doing for Newcastle in the EPL this season?

It seems that they might be trying a new broom tactic preparing for a large influx of new players. This might be due to the rumors of an impending takeover, or it might be some inside information that the deal has fallen through. The takeover deal seems to be taking a lot longer than it should, so it is interesting to see what is happening while we wait.

The betting odds on Newcastle are astronomical, and we almost want to put a tenner down just for the hell of it, but we know it would just be throwing it away. They are running at 5000 to 1 on some bookmarking sites with World Cup 2018 free betting offers. Imagine that, 50,000 for a tenner, but here is why we think it would not be worth it even at that.

Offers

Newcastle has made it clear that they are open to offers for Saivet, Diame, Haidara, Colback, and Aarons. There are sure to be some decent bargains due to the possible limited spending ability of Newcastle for this next season. So definitely a bit of a shakeup.

Loans

They are also expected to loan out some players such as Freddie Woodman and Jamie Sterry in early January. Hedging their bet as to what the lineup might be forthcoming.

Buys

Though Benitez denies any connection to any players and says they are open at the moment, Newcastle has finally had some success from making advances for Chelsea’s Kenedy. He will be on loan to Newcastle this January, so that will change up the team dynamics a bit. Benitz also wants to bring in a good striker, and a good goalkeeper, and some fullback positions. It will be interesting to see if they bump up against the FFP and the STCC.

Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations

These are basically regulations that will not allow a team to live beyond its spending ability. Which can also hamper what you can spend on new players coming in. Newcastle shouldn’t have too much of a problem with this really, as it only kicks in where there are large enough losses. Though we do not know the full extent at this time, we believe them to be far lower than will cause any effect.

Short-Term Cost Control (STCC) regulations

Basically, this is to stop teams spending huge amounts and increasing their wages bill in a single window. Though it is from funds allocated by the EPL, it can still cause an issue, as it looks like there is a lot of action coming up with Newcastle.

Time

Time is running out though to get everything ready for January. Benitez needs to get everything done by the third week in January to give any time to pull together a decent team. It’s all very well pulling in new players and mixing things up, but wherever there is a new set of player dynamics, it will take a lot of work to make it a cohesive team.

Newcastle United is presently at 18th place in the EPL after a rough eight losses out of nine games. It will be interesting to see if we finally know if the takeover deal goes through or not. There could be a nice big check to pad out the team if so, and if not, there will be a lot of scrambling to field a team that can hold off the wolves. We have great faith in Benitez handling all these issues, but for the moment he is keeping his cards too close to his chest for us to see. If anything, it will be interesting to see how Newcastle plays out for the year, though we do not believe they have any chance at the top position, they might make a nice showing and be preparing for a real push in a future year. But for this year? Don’t bet on it.

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