OPINION
Already this summer Newcastle United have seen their world class manager Rafael Benitez leave the club, as well as star player Ayoze Perez.
Speculation continues to surround midfielder Sean Longstaff, but former England international Darren Bent believes it’s another Magpies ace who could be about to follow Perez out the St James’ Park exit door.
“The centre-half, Schar. He’s a good player he is, really good player,” he told Football Insider. “It wouldn’t surprise me, to be honest, if someone came and got him or at least tried, in this takeover, tried to nitpick him because I really like him, I’m a big fan of his.”
The Newcastle supporters must be fearing the worst right now. Bent is touting one of their best players for a summer exit, and it wouldn’t be surprising in the least if someone stole him from the north east giants after his stunning debut season in English football.
The Switzerland international was magnificent for Rafael Benitez’s team last term, forming a solid centre back trio with Jamaal Lascelles and Florian Lejeune for a few glorious months before the latter’s season ending injury.
The statistics show how seamlessly Schar made the transition to the Premier League. As per WhoScored, the Newcastle man averaged 2.3 tackles and 2.8 interceptions per game last time out.
Those are excellent tallies, demonstrating how adept the former Deportivo star is at winning back possession for his team. He also made 5.5 clearances per game and averaged 0.7 blocks per game.
In terms of the key tenets of defending, Schar does everything well. He is adept at seeing what the opposition are about to do, hence his effectiveness in intercepting, while he can perform well as a last-ditch defender as well, as evidenced by the number of clearances he gets through in a game.
So you can see why Bent was so impressed by Schar last season, but the Newcastle fans won’t thank the former Sunderland man for tipping yet another star player with a summer exit.
