OPINION
Newcastle United boss Rafael Benitez does not exactly have many options to choose from heading into the new season, with a squad that has just enough senior players to make up a match day 18.
Apart from a select few, such as Aleksandar Mitrovic and Henri Saivet, the majority of the first team know that they have a chance of proving themselves during pre-season in a bid to be among the starting XI, or perhaps the substitutes, for when Tottenham visit St James’ Park in what will be their first game of the new campaign.
With two friendly matches down, the Spanish boss and his side are jetting over to Portugal to take on both Porto and Braga over the next week, but as reported by the Chronicle’s Sean McCormick, there is a surprise snub from the squad in the shape of winger Rolando Aarons.
Despite playing in both pre-season games so far, I understand winger Rolando Aarons isn't part of the #NUFC squad that has travelled to Portugal for friendlies with Porto and Braga.
— Sean McCormick (@S_McCormick95) July 27, 2018
The 22-year-old speedster has featured against both St Patrick’s and Hull City in the club’s preparations, but this is a massive bombshell to his hopes of forging a career at St James’ Park, and the writing is very much on the wall.
Shipped out to Hellas Verona during the second half of last season, the versatile flyer managed to make just 11 appearances for the Serie A outfit, six of those coming as starts.
His Newcastle career has stalled massively and with Benitez knowing he needs to sell up to bring in reinforcements, Aarons is looking more and more likely to be one of those sold in a bid to raise funds.
With the first team in Portugal, he will have to find a way to prove his worth to Benitez upon their return – but even that seems unlikely now.