Rafa Benitez gives worrying response when asked about Newcastle’s January transfer window
Rafa Benitez has given Newcastle fans an insight into how far advanced the plans are for bringing in January transfer targets.
The manager giving a less than positive overview of where he is with bringing in what would be much needed better quality new faces.
Saturday saw Newcastle tough out a fourth win of the season but anybody who watched the match, will be under no illusions that this is going to be anything other than a season-long struggle against relegation, unless better quality is added to the squad in certain positions.
Following the win over Huddersfield, Rafa Benitez has been asked about media claims of Newcastle interest in 20 year old winger/attacking midfielder, Ritsu Doan.
He is playing in the Dutch league and after arriving from Japan 18 months ago has already got 13 goals and five assists in 45 league appearances for Groningen, who paid around £1.5m for a permanent transfer this summer after an initial loan spell.
Rafa Benitez responded to the question about the young Japanese winger:
“Normally we don’t talk about players…
“But in this case I’m telling you, we are not talking about anyone at the moment.
“We have to have a meeting, maybe next week.
“Then we will see our targets…maybe.
“People have been asking me about him (Ritsu Doan), but we don’t know (our targets) yet.”
I don’t want to dampen anybody’s hopes but this doesn’t make it sound like we are suddenly going to hear Miguel Almiron is arriving on 1 January for £25m…
Is there any other Premier League club where just before every single transfer window, it is a headline news story (see below) that there is going to be a meeting at Newcastle United to discuss transfers?
Rafa Benitez has already stated that Mike Ashley has said nothing to him before or after his appearance on Sky News to claim (two weeks ago) that a sale of Newcastle United was imminent, could even be completed this month.
Whilst on transfers, if there was going to be any kind of significant change in terms of showing some ambition, then surely plans would be well underway on setting up transfers.
A year ago, Newcastle had one less point after 17 games than they do now, and were in serious relegation trouble, yet Mike Ashley refused to allow any new players to be bought.
Instead, Rafa Benitez had to rely only on loan players and had to wait until the very end of the January window to get even two (Dubravka and Slimani) of those.
It would be a very pleasant surprise if Rafa and the fans see anything better this time in terms of realistic budget made available.
Dubravka and Kenedy did unbelievably well as they hit the floor running but that kind of two in three success rate is very rare when having to scratch around for loans.
Local news headlines on Monday morning…
Northern Echo:
‘RAFAEL BENITEZ continues to work on the assumption that Newcastle United will not be taken over ahead of the transfer window, and is due to meet Lee Charnley this week to finalise his plans for January.’
The Chronicle:
‘Newcastle United set to hold transfer meeting this week as Rafa Benitez finalises January…’
Shield Gazette:
‘Rafa Benitez set for transfer summit at Newcastle
Rafa Benitez is hoping to discuss his transfer plans with Newcastle United’s hierarchy this week.’
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