The vast majority of Newcastle United fans remain firmly behind manager Rafa Benitez appreciating how his hands are tied at the club when it comes to the transfer market.
With the club slipping to the bottom of the Premier League though as we continue winless in the campaign of 2018/19, the Brighton and Hove Albion defeat as seen a bit of a shift in the conversation amongst some fans and hands tied or not, some of Benitez’s decisions have been picked out for comment by some in the fan base on social media.
Nine without a win, and seven defeats in the top-flight this year – selection and substitution decisions are a hot topic and for those who would counter with look at his options, that opens up his transfer dealings for some who don’t believe he’s beyond reproach.
Selling Mitrovic has to be our worst decision in the last 10 years #NUFC
— Steven Foster (@StevenFoster89) October 20, 2018
You can blame Mike Ashley all you want but I blame Rafa for selling Mitrovic Armstrong Colback Mbabu Mbemba when these 5 were supposed to be important pieces right now. Why Ayoze cannot get dropped ? Why him as n10 despite not having the skills to play there ? #nufc
— LeLockdownFootball (@LeLockdownFBall) October 21, 2018
Also, really hate to bring this back up; but Benitez's record in the transfer market has been hit and miss. Some of the misses though have been very costly for #NUFC ie. Giving up on Mitrovic/Lazaar/Mbemba, selling Thauvin for peanuts, spending a decent fee on Murphy
— The Perennial Pundit (@PerennialPundit) October 21, 2018
All these people that were glad to see the back of Mitrovic have gone pretty quiet as well… best striker we had #nufc
— Byron Yates (@byatesnufc) October 21, 2018
NUFC are a stain on the game at the moment man. Good job we kept that £20m from Mitrovic, gathering interest ????
— tom (@toonlowdown) October 20, 2018
And if you believe rafa had no say on mitrovic then you are a mug
— nufcross (@NufcRoss98) October 20, 2018
So glad Rafa bombed out Mitrovic and Gayle to keep this Spanish fraud. #nufc https://t.co/3vOmA0ATvt
— Andrew Lawes (@LawesDisorder) October 20, 2018
We had goals in Mitrovic…Rafa brought in Joselu, Rondon, Slimani…and let go of Mitrovic. He's to blame aswell
— jonathan durbridge (@jondurb01) October 20, 2018
If I was managing NUFC, we would be undoubtedly crap, but we’d still have Mitrović up top instead of freaking Joselu.
— ???????????????????? ???????????????????? (@scottgrames) October 20, 2018
With Dwight Gayle seeming to have a whale of a time at West Bromwich Albion as we effectively swapped him for Salomon Rondon and even Aleksandar Mitrovic having found the net five times in Fulham’s nine games, it’s a debate that won’t go away unless we start racking up those victories and improving our position in the table.