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(Not Gayle) Should Newcastle Part Ways With This Hot-Tempered Striker?

Newcastle United

Should Newcastle Sell Aleksandar Mitrovic This Summer?

Aleksandar Mitrovic, as popular as he is with the Newcastle support, is a walking conundrum. His talent is not in any doubt and nor is his exuberance. But he can be unbelievably frustrating at times.

Rafa Benitez has worked with some of the world’s top forwards including Fernando Torres, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema.  This led to the Spaniard signing Dwight Gayle for last season’s assault on the Championship, relegating Mitro to the bench, despite him having played in the Champions League before.

The amiable Benitez though did tell the press on a couple of occasions that he finds little to separate Mitrovic and Gayle in training. Gayle though was handed the coveted no.9 shirt and went on to be top scorer at the club, with even Daryl Murphy getting into the side ahead of the big Serb on few occasions.

Despite moments of quality, several lazy appearances from Mitrovic last season did not go unnoticed by sections of the usually supportive Newcastle followers. Patience has worn thin now with some of them and despite him saying he wants to stay at SJP forever, his future opportunities under Rafa may well be very limited.

Newcastle will of course retain Gayle. They also have Ayoze Perez who will be better in the Premier League once again, than he was in the Championship, and it seems like the club have won the race to sign Chelsea starlet Tammy Abraham on loan for the season. Adam Armstrong, Emmanuel Riviere and Daryl Murphy are likely to leave but despite this, the Toon look to have plenty of firepower.

Gayle and Abraham can fight it out for the top spot, but a different type of striker is often needed in the squad. Using a big, physical striker from the bench has been known to change games, though I’m not convinced Mitro will even want to stay if this is to be his role.

Big strikers are back en vogue in the Premier League; relative successes for Christian Benteke, Fernando Llorente, Andy Carroll and even Peter Crouch have proven that it’s OK to put crosses in once again. No longer do Premier League teams see passing the ball to death and trying to walk it in as their only route to goal.

With this in mind, I think Mitro would find a Premier League club if he leaves Newcastle and deserves regular first team football if he keeps his mind right. Newcastle should let go of their Serbian asset now and look to replace him with someone more stable.