Rafa Benitez has shared that Newcastle United will do everything they can to help Issac Hayden as they wish to keep him at the club.
The Spanish manager revealed that he thought the 23-year-old was an important player for the Magpies and that the midfielder had already been told he could have a few extra days off to help his situation.
The Daily Mirror previously reported that Hayden was seeking an exit from the Magpies as he had handed in a transfer request due to wanting to move to a club down south due to family reasons.
“We will try to help him because he said he has personal problems, try to help in the best way possible,” said Benitez, as quoted by the Chronicle.
“At the same time, I have to protect the team and the club.
“We will see if we can find the best solution possible but we want to keep him because he’s an important player for us.
“Not thinking too much about that, we have to think about him and his situation and if we can help.
“I told already he can take extra days off, so it’s not an issue.
“It’s just to manage and be sure he has the motivation we need from everyone.
“When we signed him, he was at Hull, so we gave him the opportunity to stay in the Premier League, and we are trying to support him now.”
OPINION
It seems the current plan for Hayden is to try and help him as best as the club can in order to block his exit. Benitez is clearly keen not to lose players from his squad for the sake of it and is willing to fight to keep Hayden at the club. Unfortunately for the Magpies manager it may be a hard battle for him to win as it will be hard to deny Hayden a move when he only wants to exit due to family reasons. The 23-year-old had a disappointing 2017/18 campaign for the club but did appear plenty of times for the first-team as he featured in 29 games for them across all competitions. Hayden started his latest campaign looking like he was going to be a regular fixture of the team but after several poor performances, he was soon dropped to the bench. Out of the last six league games of last season, Hayden only featured 18 minutes so his departure wouldn’t have a crippling instant effect on the first-team. However clearly Benitez knows that the 23-year-old is needed to be kept at the club in order to cover injuries and will hold onto him for as long as he possibly can.
