OPINION
Yoshinori Muto. Remember him Newcastle United fans?
It wasn’t that long ago that the Japanese international was playing week in week out for Rafa Benitez’s side, but the 26-year-old has become something of a forgotten man in recent times, and has played just nine minutes of Premier League football since his last start on Boxing Day.
Admittedly, he did spend a spell of time away on international duty with his country at the Asian Games, but it still makes for grim reading for the forward – missing out from the squad completely since his return, his frustrations continuing on Tuesday against Burnley.
With Salomon Rondon in fine form, and with Ayoze Perez and Miguel Almiron looking like well-established favourites to support the main man in attack, a clear path back into regular first team football on Tyneside is not easy to see, and it is getting to a point where Muto must be wondering whether he would be better off calling time on his spell in the north east before it has really got going.
Just one goal in 13 appearances has hardly been the return that he or the Magpies will have been hoping for, and if things don’t improve soon, there would be little surprise if the 29 cap international joined a long and non-too-illustrious list of massive Newcastle United flops.
Who takes him on board is another matter entirely but he has got a lot of work to do if he is going to forge a career in England and there would be very few who would blame him for taking the easy way out this coming summer.
