Newsletter

Get your daily update and weekly newsletter by signing up today!

News

Darren Bent very naive as he questions if anybody listened to Rafa Benitez about Joelinton

4 years ago
Share

Darren Bent has been talking about Joelinton.

The former Sunderland striker wondering how the signing came about.

How Newcastle United ended up paying £40m for the Brazilian.

Specifically, paying £40m for a striker whose best ever season had been scoring eight goals in the mighty Austrian league for Rapid Vienna.

Darren Bent declaring: ‘Rafa is a very good manager and if he is saying  ‘listen that’s too high’, you would have thought that someone would have listened to him.’

Obviously we (Newcastle fans) know the story but Darren Bent is a bit oblivious to exactly what happened in the summer.

Mike Ashley forcing Rafa Benitez out of St James Park and one of the central reasons for that, was so the owner could once again control the transfers once again.

Mike Ashley himself said in his infamous quotes given to The Mail (see below) on 26 July 2019, that Rafa Benitez had refused to agree to buy Joelinton, telling the NUFC owner that he was worth not even half what Ashley was desperate to pay for the striker.

Darren Bent adds about Joelinton: ‘now he is Steve Bruce’s problem’, this is said as though Bruce doesn’t share any of the blame for the summer’s disastrous transfer window. The reality is that Steve Bruce stated that he gave the ok for Joelinton to be signed and whether there is any truth at all in that, he has taken ownership of that transfer and been happy to play his part in Mike Ashley’s reckless model of running a club, particularly his ridiculous transfer policy.

Darren Bent speaking to Talksport about Joelinton:

“You know what is scary…I don’t think he was prolific before Newcastle signed him.

“I always like to see fellow strikers do really well and he was signed for a lot of money, when I saw the price-tag, I was like…’wow’.

“Then I checked his background and his stats.

“The most that he has scored in a season is eight or nine goals.

“To spend that amount of money on your centre-forward, after losing Rondon as well, I did question it.

“Every week people are going to talk about the price tag, people are going to talk about your lack of goals and it’s going to get tougher for him.

“Rafa is a very good manager and if he is saying  ‘listen that’s too high’, you would have thought that someone would have listened to him.

“Maybe thought ‘we are paying over the odds here’…and now he is Steve Bruce’s problem.

“I would have liked to have thought that Steve Bruce did have a conversation with Rafa, just to say ‘what is this player like and what is he like’ but if Rafa was saying that it was way too much money, then obviously no one has listened to him and Rafa was clearly right.”

Mike Ashley PR statement in The Mail with the help of Martin Samuel – 26 July 2019:

Mike Ashley insisted on Friday night that it was ‘impossible’ for Newcastle to have kept Rafa Benitez – and that the former manager was determined to take a lucrative deal to China from the start.

Ashley revealed he even floated the idea of an eight-year contract with Benitez at a meeting on May 16, and that the manager’s refusal to commit could have cost the club record signing Joelinton.

Ashley claims the club suspected there would be problems with the Benitez negotiation when he declined to sign off on the £40m deal for new striker Joelinton in February. As manager, Benitez had the final say on all transfers, but would not give the go-ahead on Joelinton even though Newcastle had the fee and personal terms agreed, and the player had passed a medical.

Ashley revealed: ‘We delivered Rafa’s number one target in January, Miguel Almiron, but Hoffenheim wouldn’t sell Joelinton. Then in February they said we could get him early, but it would cost £40m. He was a name we had discussed with Rafa, and our recruitment people had him top of their list. I thought it was one of those that would keep drifting away, but no, we had it done.

‘I was so excited to tell Rafa we’ve got another one coming, but when Lee Charnley, our managing director, had the conversation, his view was that he didn’t want to commit to the transfer until he knew what his position was with the club next season. And I didn’t get that. Is this the bloke who had given it to me for the last 12 months?

‘Proper given me bucketfuls – which I may or may not deserve, but I don’t deserve it on this one, because I’ve done it. I’ve got his first choice, Almiron, and this other player who was so exciting we thought he’d be out of our range. When we first sat down with Rafa, we didn’t think we would pay this much for a player. We’d never done that before.

‘From there, the relationship deteriorated very quickly. I was personally very disappointed, and that’s putting it politely. I was freaked out. I’m thinking, “I clearly don’t understand anything about football” because I’m all for celebrating and going mad and suddenly it’s, “No – you’ve got to sort my deal out first.” So we had another few weeks of correspondence and then it wasn’t just his deal, it was that he thought the £40m for Joelinton wasn’t worth it. It’s too much and the club shouldn’t spend it.

‘And very occasionally, I get to be me in this world. So here’s the deal. I’ll pay £20m of it personally. Nothing to do with the club. Above and beyond the budget. Rafa valued him at £20m. So that’s what would come out of the club budget. The rest, £23m – I’ll pay. And he still didn’t sign it off. Looking back, I think he knew for a long time he was going to China because it was like we couldn’t do anything. Joelinton was the test.

‘Why on earth would you not want that? As a football manager, with all the things you have said, why wouldn’t you want Joelinton? It wasn’t even as if it was him or Salomon Rondon. And we told him that. We just wanted Joelinton secured.’

Share

If you would like to feature on The Mag, submit your article to contribute@themag.co.uk

Have your say

© 2024 The Mag. All Rights Reserved. Design & Build by Mediaworks