Micky Quinn has had his say on Newcastle’s summer activity.
Former Newcastle striker Micky Quinn has claimed in his Evening Chronicle column that four summer signings at St. James’ Park were only supposed to be back-up players, but Rafa Benitez has been forced to use them differently.
Mikel Merino, Javier Manquillo, Joselu and Jacob Murphy have all been used regularly in the first team with midfielder Merino’s loan even being made permanent from Borussia Dortmund.
It has seen Newcastle slip into the Premier League relegation zone, after suffering eight losses in nine games and four defeats on the trot to Chelsea, Leicester City, Everton and Arsenal.
But Quinn believes that the quartet were only supposed to be back-up to bigger signings that Benitez simply could not push through, because of his well-documented lack of investment from owner Mike Ashley.
“What you can do with that squad? I look at Joselu, Jacob Murphy, Javier Manquillo and even Mikel Merino and my feeling is that they were maybe brought in as squad players.,” Quinn said.
“He had other targets who were number one but they didn’t materialise and now the squad players have become first team regulars. The budget wasn’t there and Benitez has had to use them more than he liked.”
The four players are all likely to be involved in Saturday’s trip to Stratford as the Toon go up against David Moyes’ rejuvenated West Ham United side, who have picked up seven points from their last three Premier League outings.
However, Newcastle will take heart from their recent form against West Ham, winning three of their last four games including a 3-0 win earlier in the season that saw Joselu, Ciaran Clark and Aleksander Mitrovic all find the back of the net.
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