Newcastle made it 3 league wins in as many games on Saturday after edging out Stoke City 2-1 at the Saints James’ Park.
The win means the Magpies head into the next matchday – 6th – in 4th position on the log, with a temporary spot in the Champions League zone bound to inspire the manager and players on how good things could end up following a shaky start to their campaign.
Rafa Benitez suggested he needed new players at the beginning of the season, but hardly got them and has had to make do with some of his Championship-winning charge.
3 of them; Christian Atsu(1 goal), Jamaal Lascelles (2 goals) , and Matt Ritchie (3 assists) have directly brought about the last 6 points for the team, proving their quality.
However, a noticeable absence from the core of last season’s first-team is Jack Colback, and from the look of things, his record of 5 goals and 10 assists in 102 total appearances for Newcastle could be his final tally for the team.
Since his training ground bust-up with the manager days to the new season, Colback has remained exiled from the first-team, and increasingly looks bound for an exit come January.
Despite other fringe players getting fresh starts, the 27-year-old continues to train with the under-23’s, and hasn’t been in anyway missed by the squad.
The former Sunderland man, who was included in the club’s 25-man Premier League squad, still has 2 years left on the 5-year deal he signed in the summer of 2014, but won’t likely see it out.
Colback reportedly rejected the chance to join the link up with the likes of Wolverhampton Wanderers, Birmingham City and Hull City during the closing stages of the summer transfer, and could have been better off had he agreed to.
This Benitez’s statement during Stoke City’s pre-match conference appears to sum up the fate of the out-of-favour midfielder. “Even those players who were out of the squad in my head in the transfer window, now they are in the squad and I will try to improve them”, he claimed.
“That includes anyone with us but Jack, he knew my ideas before and he knows my ideas now. It’s important for me to have a group of players, and the number of players, you can manage.
“Sometimes you have too many players and you have to leave some out. But to have players training on their own, I don’t think that’s a good situation. Instead you have to be training with a team as Colback is with the U23s.”
