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Three first team stars Benitez should offload at Newcastle

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OPINION

It is fair to say Newcastle have made a slow start to the summer transfer window.

St James’ Park has only welcomed two new faces through its doors so far, and one of those had only been away from the club for a couple of weeks.

Christian Atsu’s loan move from Chelsea was made permanent after impressing in the Championship last season, while the Magpies have also welcomed Florian Lejeune to the club from Eibar, the 26-year-old swapping northern Spain for northern England.

However, while there have been a lack of incomings, there has been an even bigger lack of those leaving the club.

So far the Magpies have offloaded just one senior player for a transfer fee, with Olympique Marseille activating a clause to sign Florian Thauvin permanently after a loan spell.

The likes of Vurnon Anita, Yoan Gouffran and Sammy Ameobi all left on free transfers, while young prospects Lubomir Satka and Kevin Mbabu were sold for undisclosed fees.

Sales will play a major role in determining how much manager Rafael Benitez has to spend this summer, so he will need to start offloading before he can continue to bring in more names to boost his squad.

While selling youngsters with little chance of breaking into the first team is an option, they will not demand the same transfer fees as a first team star would.

Here, This is Futbol analyses three first team stars (judged by having played in over half of the club’s 46 league matches) who Benitez should look at offloading to begin the merry-go-round of transfers, including a stalwart who appeared in all but one league match:

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