Rafa Benitez has spoken to the press in the last few moments and has restated that NUFC still have time to bring in players over the next day and a half, saying the club are ‘working on names’ and that he remains ‘confident’ that we will do something in the transfer market.
Benitez refused to discuss Newcastle’s failed attempts to sign Daniel Sturridge, with him preferring to focus on Burnley tomorrow night, however he did admit that Mikel Merino will NOT be leaving the club.
Rafa also revealed that ‘two or three’ NUFC players are currently talking to other clubs, but he remained pretty adamant that their exits could depend on players coming in (Mitrovic, Mbemba etc. perhaps?).
Here’s some of his quotes from the last few moments:
Rafa when asked about potential incomings with little over 24 hours left to go:
Rafa Benitez on transfers: “We will still have time and we have confidence we could still do something. We are working on names and in the last month we’ve worked on it. We still have time.” #nufc #transferwindow
— Lee Ryder (@lee_ryder) January 30, 2018
Rafa on yesterday’s failed attempt to sign Daniel Sturridge:
Rafa on Sturridge and how close: “We don’t talk about it. Or the transfer window.” #nufc #lfc #wba
— Lee Ryder (@lee_ryder) January 30, 2018
Rafa on today’s claims linking Mikel Merino with Atletico Bilbao:
Rafa on Merino to Bilbao: "I had some messages from Spanish journalists about him, but I told them 'no (he won't be leaving)'" #nufc
— Chris Waugh (@ChrisDHWaugh) January 30, 2018
Rafa on Mitrovic and other potential outgoings:
Rafa on Mitro: "We have two or three players talking with different clubs. We can see if anything will happen, but it depends on players coming too. Nothing is finished yet with those deals, so we will see."
— Chris Waugh (@ChrisDHWaugh) January 30, 2018
Rafa on Kenedy potentially starting tomorrow:
Rafa Benitez on Kenedy: ‘He’s in the squad (for Burnley). He’s one of the options. He’s doing well, maybe he has a chance.’ #nufc
— Miles Starforth (@milesstarforth) January 30, 2018
Finally, Rafa focused on Burnley tomorrow night, saying we have to focus on that above all else:
Rafa: "Because we have an important game, I prefer to focus on that and, after, we have time to analyse. But, as I've said to the fans a lot of times: these are our players, that is what we have, and we have to fight… all together, to achieve what we want to achieve." #NUFC
— Matthew Raisbeck (@raisbeck10) January 30, 2018
So, he still holds some confidence that we’ll get some deals done, however his focus seemed mainly on Burnley tomorrow – as you’d expect.
Three points tomorrow and a new signing in the mean time would be massive, but right now I’ve got little faith.
Let’s hope that changes before 7.45pm tomorrow night!
We will get beaten tomorrow and the only transfers we will complete will be outgoing ones to weaken the squad. It will be done against Rafas wishes and probably on the premise that they’ll get rafa a replacement which will fall through due to a lack of effort/desire from charnley to actually get any deals done.
John(Quote)
Were gonna get tw*tted 2moro not sign anyone and finish the day in the relegation zone, thanks a lot Ashley, what a lovely kind giving man
JDNUFC(Quote)