OPINION
Mick Quinn tore into the majority of the Newcastle United squad on Tuesday and his criticism for midfielder Ki Sung-yeung proved the club shouldn’t have signed him upon his Swansea City contract expiring.
The former Magpie shared his opinion on every member of Rafa Benitez’s squad and his verdict on Ki, who joined in the summer following his Swans contract expiring, contained some pretty stinging criticism.
“He looks neat and tidy in possession, but lacks legs,” wrote Quinn while delivering his verdict on the current Magpies, as quoted by the Chronicle.
“It always concerns me when you sign players from sides who have just been relegated, too.”
Quinn highlighted the 29-year-old’s lack of pace and ability to cover a lot of ground by stating the player lacked legs and it’s hard to disagree with that assessment.
Ki has been a yard off the pace in all of his three outings so far and was even outclassed by Championship side Nottingham Forest when they defeated the Magpies in the EFL Cup.
However it shouldn’t have been known that he didn’t have the legs to fit into Benitez’s system or play the high-tempo style of football that the Spanish manager strives for.
As he demonstrated that was a weakness of his game when featuring for The Swans last season.
Quinn highlighted that he is always concerned when players are recruited from relegated clubs, but at times you can pick up a bargain courtesy of another side’s misery.
Although when scouring relegated clubs for bargains, it seems logical that you make sure you do your homework on a player before pinching his services, but given Ki’s success at St James Park that clearly wasn’t the case.
The 29-year-old has quickly fallen down the pecking order at the club, even behind Isaac Hayden, and wasn’t even a member of the squad for the games against Arsenal and Leicester City despite no injury problem being reported.
It’s clear based on how fast he has fallen out of favour at the Magpies that it was blunder to sign him in the summer and an avoidable one at that as the flaws causing him to struggle, should have been already known before signing him.
Yet now it feels like Ki was simply signed because he was free and was another player to fill a squad space more than anything else.
Therefore after Quinn’s stinging criticism of the 29-year-old it’s clear the Magpies made a blunder, they could have avoided, by signing him this summer.
