Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez came in for some stick from a section of the fanbase following his decision to loan striker Aleksandar Mitrovic out to Fulham last season. The Serbian found the back of the net regularly as they won promotion back to the Premier League via the Play-Offs, and we cashed in on the 24-year-old to the tune of £22million according to some reports.
Especially in light of Newcastle’s struggles in front of the net this season, Mitrovic started the 2018/19 campaign brightly, scoring five goals in his opening six games, but since the clash with Watford towards the end of September, his remaining games have seen him hit a drought of his own.
With Fulham losing again on Monday evening to Huddersfield Town, plenty of Newcastle fans were happy to lay into our former player, believing that Rafa had been vindicated in his decision.
Always said it, he’s hopeless man. The mistake wasn’t selling mitrovic, it was not replacing him. He looked a proper pudding (again) tonight.
— DB (@thedjr1981) November 5, 2018
@lee_ryder don’t see all these football pundit experts having a go at Benitez now for selling Mitrovic now that Fulham are down at the bottom!!!! #nufc
— Mark Nicholson (@markn1960902) November 5, 2018
Did Mitrovic score tonight? #nufc
— Peter Monaghan (@petermonaghan39) November 5, 2018
So Mitrovic went missing once again tonight. Our fans actually thought it was a mistake to sell him. Unless he can score 20 goals a season AT LEAST, Rafa nor any top class manager should have to explain why they wouldn't change the way they set up to accommodate him #NUFC
— Pasty guy (@Joeeeeeee_96) November 5, 2018
Not seen so many "What was Rafa thinking?" tweets about Mitrovic lately.
— David Payne (@TheBoxingWriter) November 5, 2018
Mitrovic looks even worse than when he played for us
— Give Rafa Some Coin ????⚫️⚪️⚫️⚪️ (@RyanBelly) November 5, 2018
Mitrovic scores 2 goals against an absolutely shambolic Burnley side and Rafa’s got it wrong. Proving just how much of a fraud he is now.
— Michael Wylie (@wylie321) November 5, 2018
Another shocker from Mitrovic, I think we can all see why Rafa sold him
— Dan Bell (@DanielB00955238) November 5, 2018
He was clearly poor and fans have seen those types of performances a few times during his spell with us but they’ll be plenty hoping this small piece of gloating doesn’t come back to bite us.