Sorry, but you may be frozen out in September
BENITEZ SENDS WARNING TO FRINGE STARS
Chief sports writer RAFA Benitez has indicated that some of Newcastle United’s fringe players could find themselves frozen out if they can’t find a new club in time for deadline day.
The Toon boss must name a 25-man squad by September 1, and as things stand some squad members would be left with non-playing roles at the club’s Academy until January at the earliest.
Benitez told a clutch of players in early July they no longer had a part to play at United, but many have struggled to find a club that matches their wage packets.
Newcastle now go into the last few days of the window looking to offload Tim Krul, Grant Hanley, Achraf Lazaar, Jack Colback, Yasin Ben El-Mhanni and Henri Saivet.
When asked if some players could be left in a tough situation with no playing time in prospect during the first half of the season, Benitez told the Chronicle: “Yes they could be.
“In the end you have 25 players and you try to move some players.
“If you cannot, you still have register the 25.
“To keep professionals around who have not got the possibility to do their jobs is not fair.
“But it’s what you might have to do in order to choose the right 25 to have the balance right, just in case something happens. “With the others hopefully we can find solutions, but if not it’s something we can’t control.” Benitez feels that he has cleared some space on the wage budget by offloading Siem De Jong and Emmanuel Riviere and hopes that others follow them out the door. He said: “We are still trying to improve the situation because we Rafa Benitez know everybody wants to play and we will try to find a solution.
“We don’t have too much time and other things could happen.
“Maybe you are trying to sign other players who aren’t available.
“You can have a target and they won’t sell to you.
“Everybody has the same problem at different levels.
“You have a lot of top sides in the Premier League and they don’t want to sell their players to Spanish or Italian clubs or French clubs or whatever.
“Until September 1, anything can happen.
“We have to make sure that after that we will be in the position where we stick together and work very hard and we will be stronger.”