OPINION
Rafa Benitez has worked wonders at Newcastle United and it is worrying that the club are letting him down again by being yet to register a single official bid to sign a new player.
The Chronicle worryingly reported on Tuesday that the club hadn’t made a single offer to sign a new player, as the signing of goalkeeper Martin Dubravka doesn’t count as his fee was agreed in January when he joined on loan (Source: The Chronicle), and it’s simply not good enough.
The newspaper stated that an offer hasn’t been lodged for anyone as Benitez is trying to ensure that he gets the most out his limited transfer budget.
This is a warranted stance to take by the Magpies boss but unfortunately it just shows that the club should have handed him a bigger transfer kitty to work with.
Especially as the manager had a range of targets, as reported by the The Chronicle, ahead of the window in regards to the signing a new forward as it was claimed that Benitez had a 50-man shortlist that covered a range of budgets.
While players departing could help the club make room for new recruits to arrive, there should have been at least one bid made in order to make progress towards a new face arriving.
Negotiations between clubs can take an unpredictable amount of time and it’s better to start working towards deals sooner and pull the plug on them further down the line then try to get everything done quickly at the last minute.
The Magpies have seemingly done this in past two transfer windows, particularly in January, and given the amount of players needed to improve the squad ahead of the new season the club should be closer to making signings than they apparently are.
It seems based on this worrying report that Magpies are in for another disappointing transfer window and that must sound the alarm amongst supporters.
Hopefully this report is either wide of the mark or the situation is going to change extremely quickly as with the transfer window closing at the start of August rather than the end, time is of the essence.
