Lee Ryder has revealed that forgotten forward Yoshinori Muto is ‘unhappy’ at the lack of game time he’s received since Steve Bruce was appointed last summer.
His piece for The Chronicle also states that the Japanese international earns £50,000 per week – which is big bucks for a player who’s started just SEVEN top flight games since he completed a £9.5m move from Mainz in 2018.
Steve Bruce has also commented on the striker’s situation following Monday night’s stalemate on the South Coast, confirming he’ll have sit down talks with the 28-year-old soon.
Here’s what he’s had to say:
“Look, I’ll sit down with Muto.
“He hasn’t had the best of times under me, gamewise.
“He’s a great pro, trains well, so I’ve got no problem with him.
“No issues, it’s just that we have forward players at the minute who are ahead of him.”
There’s a theme here with Muto. Both Benitez and Bruce always praised his professionalism and performances in training, yet neither have given him game time.
He scored in our mid-season friendly with Middlesbrough last month and Bruce hinted at the time that he’d ‘have a part to play’ when we returned from lockdown, yet he’s been given just SIX minutes of football since.
The Chronicle suggest he could yet be handed a chance to impress Bruce over pre-season, however I can only see us cashing in this summer if the opportunity presents itself.
After all, he’s ‘unhappy’, on big wages and is hardly likely to break into our side when he’s been nowhere near at a time where our current crop have bagged just 5 league goals between them all season!
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