Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez won’t entertain offers for any of his first-team playing squad.
Newcastle United have had one of the most talked about transfer windows this summer, as the pressure on both owner Mike Ashley and manager Rafa Benitez increases.
The two clearly have a different vision for the future of the club, with Benitez wanting to bring in more players, believing that the squad wasn’t good enough, and the club, in fact, making a trading profit from sales.
Aleksandar Mitrovic was sold to Fulham for £22 million and Mikel Merino left for Real Sociedad for around £10 million, while incoming striker Yoshinori Muto was comfortably the most expensive signing at £9 million from Mainz.
And although it’s possible things could get worse for Benitez before the end of the month, as there’s still the possibility that first-team players could leave on loan for Championship clubs (Isaac Hayden, for instance, has been linked with a move to Stoke City), while foreign teams are still able to buy players, but Benitez has ruled out any chance of his Newcastle first-team squad leaving.
“We will not allow anyone who is already in the team or part of the squad to go,” he said in his press conference ahead of the weekend’s game with Cardiff City.
“We have some young players who maybe need time on the pitch but that is it – players that are playing already, we can’t allow anyone to go because we don’t have too many.
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