OPINION
Rafa Benitez froze Aleksandar Mitrovic out at Newcastle United and with the star joining an exciting Fulham side on transfer deadline day, the Magpies boss will soon regret his decision to let him go.
Sky Sports confirmed on Wednesday that the Serbian international had joined Fulham on loan until the end of the season, and was in line to make his debut against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Mitrovic played seven times for Newcastle United this season scoring two goals, but found himself on the fringes of their squad.
The 23-year-old revealed in December that he felt he hadn’t been given a chance this season, with Benitez opting to play Dwight Gayle and Joselu ahead of him.
“I have persistently waited for the chance over the past months and I do not welcome it,” admitted Mitrovic, as quoted by the Daily Mirror.
“And the fact that I did not get a chance is simply not up to me, everyone knows that I was left unintentionally in the background.”
It was a weird scenario that Mitrovic found himself in as Benitez wasn’t willing to give him a run of games despite his side goalscoring problems.
Newcastle United have only scored 23 goals in 25 league games, which has been the main reason why they’re only a point above the relegation zone.
Also Gayle and Joselu have only scored a combined total of seven goals despite both regularly featuring in the team.
When you consider Mitrovic is only five goals short of the striking duo combined, it seems like a foolish decision to have let him go.
However, the Magpies boss was thought to have been less than impress with Mitrovic’s disciplinary record as he managed to earn himself a suspension this season despite hardly featuring.
Even though this might be the case, surely it might have been best to forgive and forget in order to do what was best for the club, and play a centre-forward capable of scoring goals.
Ahead of joining Fulham, Mitrovic looked like he was heading to Anderlecht where he would be out of sight and out of mind, but now that he’s gone to Fulham, Benitez will be forced to see he has made a horrible mistake.
The 23-year-old will no doubt score plenty of goals in a very attacking Fulham side, as they have the ability to score for fun given their attacking threats of Ryan Sessegnon, Tom Cairney and Aboubakar Kamara.
Mitrovic may have only scored four Championship goals with the Magpies, but playing in Fulham’s side given their current form, he’ll grab over double that with half of the season to go.
The Serbian international will get a lot of attention as England’s second-tier garners a ton of media coverage, which will see Benitez be force to regret letting another side benefit from a clinical Mitrovic.