Crystal Palace’s Wayne Hennessey has emerged as a surprising, and underwhelming, target for Newcastle United.
With The Sun reporting that Newcastle United could turn their attention to Wayne Hennessey as they desperately scrabble around for a new goalkeeper, the phrase ‘scraping the barrel’ comes to mind.
The Crystal Palace shot-stopper may have earned 68 caps for Wales while featuring regularly in the top flight for both The Eagles and Wolverhampton Wanderers but whether he would even represent an upgrade on Rob Elliot or Karl Darlow is seriously debateable.
After all, Hennessey’s penchant for Sunday league level gaffes is well established, the latest coming as he raced off his line and failed to intercept to gift Jordan Ayew a clinching goal in Saturday’s 2-0 home defeat at Swansea City.
Yet, the report claims that Newcastle manager Rafael Benitez may be forced to turn his attention towards Hennessey with first choice Pepe Reina, who he managed at Liverpool and Napoli, targeted by PSG.
Fernando Muslera of Galatasaray and West Ham United’s Adrian may also be beyond Newcastle’s restrictive transfer budget.
Therefore, it is difficult to dispel the nagging feeling that Hennessey is nothing other than a cheap alternative, albeit one with plenty of top flight experience.
The fact that Palace supporters are hardly mourning the departure of one of their longest serving players should really tell Newcastle everything they need to know.
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