Is the fact that Ameobi is still at Newcastle United merely an indication of the club’s poor transfer business?
While Sammy Ameobi may owe his second chance at Newcastle United to the club’s unwillingness to shell out for Andros Townsend in January, The Chronicle reports that the winger has proven himself to Rafael Benitez since his surprise first-team reprisal.
The 24-year-old has spent the first half of the season out on loan with Bolton Wanderers in League One, impressing to such an extent that his future appeared to be set in stone at the Macron Stadium.
Nonetheless, an inability to enhance his attacking ranks in January meant Benitez was forced to bring Ameobi back to Tyneside in January, despite The Chronicle claiming that the Spaniard had told him in no uncertain terms that he would play no part in his first-team plans.
Ameobi may have accumulated just 56 minutes of league action since the turn of the year in Newcastle colours, his last appearance coming in a six minute cameo against Derby at the beginning of February.
Yet The Chronicle claims that Shola’s younger brother has impressed Benitez with improvements in his attitude and fitness, so much so that it is far from certain that he will be shipped out of St James’ once again in the summer.
However it is difficult to shake the notion that if Benitez had been allowed to spend freely in the winter market Ameobi would have been cut loose.
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