In an interview with Football Insider, former Leeds United right-back Danny Mills has hailed Newcastle for thinking ‘outside the box’ to sign Miguel Almiron, but his praise for the Paraguayan only goes so far.
Almiron completed his January transfer from Major League Soccer franchise Atalanta United on Deadline Day, when we smashed our 14-year club transfer record by spending £20million on the attacking midfielder.
Since then, the 25-year-old helped turn our fortunes around by giving our attack another threat, in what has proven to be a stunning partnership with Ayoze Perez and Salomon Rondon.
In his ten appearances with the Magpies, though, Almiron failed to score or assist a single goal, having taken an average 2.2 shots per game and played 13 key passes in total, before seeing his maiden campaign end with a hamstring injury.
His impact away from direct goal involvement has still made him a top signing for the club in the eyes of Mills, but he still has a long way to go before he will be a player the big sides desire.
“I think he’s been very, very good,” Mills claimed. “Was it a stellar signing? No, it wasn’t. Has he played very, very well? Yeah, he’s been great. All credit to Rafa Benitez and his scouting system. They’ve clearly looked outside the box and further afield.
“Has he been the only reason Newcastle have done well? No. That’s down to Rafa Benitez. Rafa knows what he is doing, he is the reason why Newcastle are where they are and they’re not in a relegation scrap.
“Has he been a good signing? Yes, he has. He’s still not that stellar signing. How many of the top six, seven, eight sides would now go and try and buy him?
“I don’t think they would, not at this moment in time. Maybe if he has another good season and has a full year at it, they might do, so no, I made those statements at the time and I stick by them.
“If anybody says that was a stellar signing at that time and they knew everything about him, probably need to get out a little bit more, I would say.”