Is Chancel Mbemba destined to leave Newcastle United this summer?
According to The Northern Echo, Rafael Benitez has told Newcastle United duo Massadio Haidara and Jesus Gamez that they can leave the club this summer.
Neither left-back has kicked a ball in the Premier League for the Magpies this calendar year and, with both out of contract in June, the Newcastle boss is not willing to hand them extensions at St James’s Park.
Gamez is injured, while Haidara, who faced Chelsea in the FA Cup in January, has since been frozen out completely, but could Chancel Mbemba follow both through the exit door this summer?
Like Haidara, Mbemba hasn’t played for United since the FA Cup defeat at Stamford Bridge and so long as Benitez remains as manager it seems quite unlikely that the former Anderlecht man – an £8.5 million signing in 2015 (The Chronicle) has a future.
Unlike Haidara and Gamez, however, Mbemba has looked a very decent player for the North-East side at times and Benitez’s decision to include him in a friendly XI during the international break gave rise to suggestions that the 23-year-old did have a role to play under the Spaniard, but he’s been nowhere to be seen since.
If the report from The Echo is accurate, the former Liverpool boss might be plotting a summer clear-out, and at the moment it wouldn’t be a major surprise if Mbemba was to be included in that.
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