Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez has revealed what he has told Magpies striker Salomon Rondon about his future as uncertainty continues to swirl around the Venezuelan.
The 29-year-old has excelled on loan at St James’ Park from West Bromwich Albion, but there are doubts over whether Benitez will be allowed to sign him on a permanent deal this summer.
Benitez has shed some light on the situation: “I bumped into him in [the] corridor, and we were chatting a bit,” he told the Shields Gazette. “Talking about him scoring against Argentina and then losing to Catalonia. I said ‘everyone is talking about your future’, but told him just concentrate on scoring goals, and that’s it.
“That’s what he says as well, Everyone wants to know what is going on, but he cannot change things now. He has to wait, so just focus on scoring goals. That’s it.”
OPINION
This is an interesting insight from Benitez, although it’s kind of what you expect a manager to say in this situation. As he says, Rondon can’t do anything to influence the speculation surrounding his future. All he can do is play well and continue to score goals for Newcastle. To be fair to him, he’s been doing an excellent job of that so far this season. It’s a slight surprise that Benitez told Rondon that everyone is talking about his future, you might have expected him to try and ignore the speculation and ensure that the player is doing the same. However, he appears determined to meet this thing head on. That perhaps is an indication of his feelings on the matter. He seemingly wants Rondon to stay at the club and it’s more Mike Ashley’s age policy that is the problem. With that said, Benitez seemingly has no qualms about addressing the speculation.
