Shelvey must sort out his anger issues to gain Rafa’s trust

JONJO Shelvey says that he’s seeing a psychologist about his discipline issues. I think he needs an anger management specialist.

What I saw on Sunday against Spurs was a player who was selfishly desperate to get his retaliation in against a perceived slight – and that is a common theme for Shelvey.

He can’t let anything go. It’s almost like he has to get his retaliation in early, but it’s his team who suffer for it.

I said before the season started that this was going to be the season where we found out whether he’s a Premier League player or not.

He’s certainly got the talent but there’s a reason why no-one was prepared to take a chance on him last summer and we saw it play out on Sunday against Spurs. It’s his temper and his temperament that are in question.

Plenty of players play on the edge. There are a lot who are prepared to tread that fine line between aggression and something that’s unacceptable.

Shelvey is something different. He’s a player who has to make his point – and that makes him selfish.

Dele Alli was holding on to the ball and Shelvey felt he was winding him up, so he had to rake his boot over his foot. He had to have his revenge. It’s farcical but he’ll get a second chance this season because Rafa Benitez has no choice. He doesn’t have a big enough squad or budget to freeze Shelvey out but I think if he had a completely free hand, he might not be playing again for a manager who rates discipline and an ability to deliver on his instructions higher than anything else. The interesting thing is that Rafa has signed a player who can replace him in Mikel Merino, the young Spanish midfielder from Borussia Dortmund. He is a creative midfielder and I think he was signed for the precise reason that Rafa couldn’t trust Shelvey to stay on the pitch for all 38 games. What a chance it is for him. We’ve seen Aleksandar Mitrovic on the bench for long periods for just this reason. If Merino comes in, grabs his chance and settles straight into the Premier League than Shelvey could be waiting a while to get his opportunity again. From the little bits I’ve seen of Merino there looks to be a player in there. It’s a gamble for Newcastle to buy him but Rafa obviously saw something. Now he has arguably the biggest chance of his career because there’s three important games for Newcastle and he will be the main man for all three.

The Shelvey incident was doubly frustrating because, for me, that game was nicely poised at 0-0 just after halftime. Newcastle were always going to be up against it a bit against a Spurs team that are very dangerous but they were coping with it very well – especially considering they’d suffered those two injuries in the first half. When it went to 10 v 11, it was never going to happen.

Looking ahead, Sunday is a fresh start for Newcastle. The fixture list has thrown up five games that they must target for points. They need nine points as a minimum from the