As confirmed by the Chronicle, Rafa Benitez has relegated both Jack Colback and Achraf Lazaar to reserve team training following the players return to pre-season yesterday.
Colback clearly doesn’t see eye to eye with Rafa, with the ex-Sunderland midfielder told to train with the youngsters for the first half of last season (prior to his move to Forest), however Lazaar is slight surprise.
The left-back was signed by Benitez two years ago and it sounded like he was going to be given one last chance to impress this summer following a disastrous loan spell at Benevento last season – but that now appears to be unlikely.
Newcastle United senior duo relegated to the reserves for pre-season https://t.co/e8wJ1jfQMY
— Lee Ryder (@lee_ryder) July 7, 2018
With youngsters Sean Longstaff and Cal Roberts promoted to first-team training, it’s fair to say the futures of Lazaar and Colback look bleak at best.
The former may just get a chance to impress if we don’t sign a left-back and/or places open up in Rafa’s first-team squad, but I really can’t see Colback playing in a Newcastle shirt again.
He’ll most likely return to Forest – although they may have trouble matching the £40,000 per-week he’s apparently picking up at Newcastle.
