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Pre-season

Paul Dummett thinks there is ‘good competition’ at Newcastle United even without any more signings

7 years ago
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Paul Dummett is desperate to be included this season and says he and his teammates are ‘working hard in training and friendlies, to try and get a place in the team’.

A 2-1 win over Hearts kicked off pre-season and then a 1-1 draw at Preston on Saturday, next up is Bradford away on Wednesday.

Javier Manquillo is the latest signing and as well as being a right-back he can also cover the left – but we still wait to see whether Rafa Benitez brings in a new left-back who will go straight in ahead of Paul Dummett.

Whilst acknowledging that ‘we might want a few more players’ this summer, Dummett says that whether that happens or not ‘we know we have got good competition’.

There are now only 20 days until United kick off against Spurs on Sunday 13 August and fair to say that fans expected one or two more obvious first team players to have arrived by now.

Manquillo, Atsu and Lejeune all look likely to be squad players at least initially, rather than automatic first team selections.

Jacob Murphy appears to be a potentially more exciting signing but it remains to be seen how quickly Rafa Benitez gives him a start, seen as it was only 15 months ago when the winger was still playing League One football.

I think we all agree that a ‘few more players’ are definitely needed but the only expectation of the current set of players is that they try their best, which to be fair to Paul Dummett is what he does every game.

Paul Dummett talking to Sky Sports:

“We might want a few more players but the squad we have now, did well to win the league.

“So everyone who is here now is desperate to show what they have got.

“We all want to be playing, so it is up to us to fight for our place, no matter who comes in, whatever player he (Rafa Benitez) brings in.

“We know we have got good competition and we just want to hit the ground running.

“So we have been working hard in training and friendlies, to try and get a place in the team.”

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