Some Newcastle United fans were left reacting to the shock sight of Matz Sels making an appearance during the club’s friendly clash with St Patrick’s Athletic on Tuesday night.
The Magpies rounded off their pre-season training camp in Ireland with a clash against the local side in Dublin, with Rafael Benitez naming two separate sides for both halves of the outing.
With Karl Darlow starting the first half, it was Belgian stopper Sels, who had not made a competitive outing for the club since the 28th July 2017, who was selected to turn out for the second 45 minutes, the former Nottingham Forest keeper having seemingly picked up a blow late during his stint between the sticks.
SECOND HALF: We're back under way in Dublin.
Matz Sels, DeAndre Yedlin, Ciaran Clark, Cal Roberts, Jonjo Shelvey, Christian Atsu, Adam Armstrong, Kenedy and Dwight Gayle are on for the Magpies. Josef Yarney and Sean Longstaff stay on. #NUFC
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) July 17, 2018
With just 14 appearances under his belt, and a season on loan to Anderlecht, fans would have thought they had seen the last of the 26-year-old, and they took to Twitter to react to the shock sight.
This is Futbol has rounded up a selection of the supporters’ tweets:
https://twitter.com/CheekyTOON24/status/1019307852194897920
https://twitter.com/Djfletch1969/status/1019307867193659392
https://twitter.com/Kriss_nufc83/status/1019308843380207616
Oh dear….??
— ?????? (@StevenNUFC) July 17, 2018
Soon be 1-1 then ?
— CHIZZY (@nchiz7) July 17, 2018
— NO R in Newcastle (@NUFC_GRB) July 17, 2018
https://twitter.com/ian9694/status/1019308266457886720
Opinion
This summer is full of surprises, and Newcastle fans have just been handed another in the form of a first team appearance for Sels. The Magpies have no less than four senior options on their books, and the Belgian stopper would likely be at the very bottom of the pecking order for most fans. Still, they are not Rafael Benitez, and it is the Spaniard’s decision as to who plays and who does not. Perhaps he is running the rule over the flop one last time, or maybe he is putting him in the shop window for scouts to keep an eye on. Any which way, it was a sight that no one, including Sels himself would have been expecting, and this could well be goodbye for the Newcastle faithful.