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Exclusive claims Aleksandar Mitrovic set to leave on deadline day loan

7 years ago
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Despite making only 15 league starts in the 18 months Rafa Benitez has been at Newcastle United, Aleksandar Mitrovic is still arguably the most talked about player at the club.

A cult hero to many Newcastle fans and a clown to others, the Serbian striker’s future has been constantly discussed over the summer months and well before that.

With only 11 Championship starts, Rafa appeared to make clear that he saw no future for Mitrovic at the club, especially as his preferred option is playing with a sole striker who has to be mobile and make a lot of runs – not something that even his biggest fans would claim is his best attribute.

Early this summer, Mitrovic himself even admitted that he was very likely going to leave, if an offer came in that was good for both him and the club.

With no big name/fee striker arriving, Rafa Benitez even went out and bought a bargain priced (£5m) Joselu, then brought him on at Huddersfield ahead of Mitro, before starting with the Spaniard against West Ham, despite the former Anderlecht striker scoring a cracking goal in the midweek against Forest.

However, Rafa has once again talked about Dwight Gayle having confidence issues and that he was physically ok to play when leaving the striker out of his 18 man squad against the Hammers.

Mitrovic then coming on for the final 20 minutes and ‘waltzed’ around Joe Hart to add Newcastle’s third goal.

The last 48 hours have brought then claims of Newcastle being happy to sell Dwight Gayle and Fulham reported to have made a £15m bid, amidst interest from other clubs.

The consensus is that Rafa Benitez is still desperate to bring in another striker and that either Gayle or Mitrovic would need to leave if that is to happen.

Deadline day morning has seen the pendulum swing back the other way, with claims from France that Mitrovic has been offered to clubs on loan.

The usually reliable GFFN (Get French Football News) say that they have been told that Newcastle could be prepared to let Mitrovic leave, if a club meets their demands.

Having given up on being able to sell the 22 year old this window, GFFN say that now Newcastle are willing to let Mitro leave if a club pays his wages and gives NUFC ‘a considerable loan fee’.

The French report saying that despite what happened at the weekend, Rafa Benitez still retains trust in Dwight Gayle ahead of Aleksandar Mitrovic.

In an ideal scenario, quite probably Rafa Benitez would be more than happy to sell both of them, if he could press a button and two strikers could be brought in of his choosing.

However, reality is that he would do very well to get one in and one out at this very late stage.

Yes, Mitrovic scored two decent goals in the past week but extremely doubtful that this has made Rafa see the Serbian in any kind of a different light, in terms of being a player who suits his way of playing.

This is of course before you get to the latest ridiculous stupidity of the striker, going out of his way to make contact with Lanzini on Saturday and pick up a retrospective ban, meaning he can’t play for Newcastle until October, if he is still here…

GFFN say ‘multiple’ Ligue 1 clubs are interested in Mitrovic but Marseille are the one desperate to add a striker, with their new owners they have shown a willingness to fund deals, including big wages, with Payet and the return of Florian Thauvin proof of that.

An interesting deadline day ahead, hopefully in a positive way for once.

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