According to the Chronicle, Newcastle United are planning to sell Aleksandar Mitrovic, Chancel Mbemba, Henri Saivet, Jack Colback, Matz Sels and Achraf Lazaar this summer.
With safety all but secured, attentions will be turning to another massive summer for the club – and it looks like Rafa is planning to be ruthless.
Five of the six names mentioned here have been out on loan this season, however it seems Benitez has already made his mind up, and we don’t blame him.
Mitrovic has impressed with a stunning 11 goals in 12 for Fulham but it just seems like his future is away from St James’ Park, whilst Chancel Mbemba is another who, despite being an promising talent, is someone Rafa just doesn’t seem to fancy.
Colback, Sels, Saivet and Lazaar have endured relatively uninspiring loan moves away to Forest, Anderlecht, Sivasspor and Benevento respectively, so they’re a bunch who don’t look good enough to threaten the first-team fold.
Not only that, there’s too many players attached to the club right now, so offloading will take the strain off the wage bill and release a decent amount of money that Benitez will be hoping to spend this summer.
Here’s a snippet from the Chronicle confirming the six Rafa looks set to cash in on over the coming months – including those whose contracts are also expiring:
Newcastle are looking to sell Aleksandar Mitrovic this summer and could command a fee of up to £20million for the Serbian striker after his goal rush with Fulham with the Cottagers set to get first refusal on the ex-Anderlecht man.
The likes of Jack Colback, Henri Saivet, Chancel Mbemba, Matz Sels, and Achraf Lazaar will also be allowed to leave.
Newcastle will also free up part of their wage budget by releasing Curtis Good, Jesus Gamez, Massadio Haidara, Stuart Findlay, and Yasin Ben El-Mhanni.
Anyone here you’d like to see the club keep a hold of?
Let us know your thoughts!
You should add Gayle , joselu , perez , yedlin and manquillo to that list , and I still think letting mitrovich and mbemba leave work turn out to be a huge mistake
Jack(Quote)
Don’t agree with you, Jack, …well, not entirely.
Rafa has said many times what he values – competition and balance. This is what will guide the sales and recruitment drive. Certainly, the dozen Olly identified will be moved on. (If they can be, the only obstacle being current wages, as none will go on lesser wages if they have even a single day of their lucrative NUFC contract left. This is shown clearly by Colback’s behaviour.) And, I think you are correct in that there are others who may not have a large part to play in Rafa’s future squad, such as Manquillo, Elliot, Aarons. There are a number of younger players out on loan, but none have shown enough to suggest they will become first team regulars, such as Arma, Toney, Findlay, and they may go or not since they hardly constitute much of an outlay. Still, because Rafa wants competition, I don’t see him allowing too many others to go until he has replacements (with more upside) arrive. So, players who might be retained as squad depth but without any real future or prospect of playing much of a role are people like Hayden, Clark, Darlow, Atsu, Joselu. Others, whom I suspect will play because NUFC won’t be able to recruit suitable improvements (due to cost or competition for their signatures), but who are probably not the ones Rafa would ideally like to have to rely on are Dummett, Yedlin, Perez, Gayle. Others who will be in the squad and play small parts while they develop are Murphy, Woodman, Merino, and I suspect they will be expected to show signs of improving or they may well be loaned out to showcase their talent for future sales. Rafa may want competition, but he will (and has shown in the past that he does) churn through the pool of talent available to ensure the balance he wants in his squad.
Peter(Quote)