OPINION
Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez dropped a huge hint with his recent comments that defender Chancel Mbemba would be given a chance to save his career at the club.
The 23-year-old centre-back has struggled to feature this season, making only 11 appearances across all competitions.
In fact Mbemba hasn’t even made the Magpies’ squad for a league game since their match against Brighton at the end of 2017.
However Benitez’s commented on the rarely-seen defender playing again this season and suggested that there was a real possibility that he could play a game before the end of the current campaign.
“He was training [on Friday] – and training well – but the problem sometimes is, when the team are winning and you already have, in this case, four players in this position, it’s not easy for everyone in these times,” said Benitez ahead of his side’s game against Everton on Monday, as quoted by the Chronicle Live.
“With five games left maybe he will have a chance, we will see, he’s training well.”
While Mbemba will no doubt be thrilled by the fact he will potential get an opportunity to kick a ball at St James’ Park sometime soon, his manager’s next comments should have given him cause for concern.
“Now is maybe the time that some players need to prove themselves,” Benitez added.
“So maybe I will make some changes to make sure that some players are given a chance to impress the staff and then think about their future, some players are playing for their futures.”
It has to be assumed that Mbemba is one of the players Benitez is referring to as the defender has hardly featured this season, and the Spanish manager seems keen to improve his squad in the summer.
For the Magpies to welcome new arrivals to St James’ Park, they need to sell those who are deemed surplus to requirements in order to raise funds to spend in the transfer market.
As Mbemba is only 23-years-old and is contracted to the club until 2020, his departure could easily raise funds for the side’s transfer budget.
Therefore it seems that Benitez will hand the enforcer one final chance to revive his Magpies career, that has looked dead for most of this season, before potentially waving goodbye to him in the summer.