OPINION
Newcastle should forget about going ahead with the reported plan set out for winger Rolando Aarons.
According to the Newcastle Chronicle, the 23-year-old attacker – who was sent out on respective loans to Slovan Liberec and Sheffield Wednesday last season – has been asked to report to the club’s first-team headquarters when pre-season begins next week.
The newspaper says that Aarons – as of whoever the new manager will be – is to begin pre-season on a clean slate, having been underused by Rafael Benitez.
But the Magpies should forget about giving Aarons this new slate, because the statistics for his most recent season [Source: WhoScored] show that he has a lot of catching up to do and would not add much to the squad.
In nine Championship appearances, the 23-year-old was dispossessed – on average – 1.1 times per game and took 2.1 poor touches per game that led to him losing the ball.
What’s more, Aarons’ stint at Wednesday saw him commit 1.7 fouls per game and only take, on average, one shot in each outing.
These statistics show that if he cannot put in good performances while in the Championship, then there is no way that he should be given a second chance by whoever will be coming in as the new Magpies boss.
Yes, Newcastle are in need of new attacking additions with it now very likely that Salomon Rondon will not be brought back to St James’ Park [Northern Echo], but Aarons is simply not the answer.
Whoever comes in will of course want to assess everyone in the squad, but after the terrible season Aarons has had, the new slate he is said to be offered should be taken away and he should be sold.
