Newcastle United’s Premier League squad for the first half of the season was announced on Monday night, with winger Rolando Aarons failing to make the cut.
The 22-year-old burst onto the scene at St James’ Park in 2014 at just 18 years of age, but struggled to maintain his initial level of form and spent part of last season on loan at Italian outfit Hellas Verona.
His failure to even make the Magpies’ 25 man squad represents quite a fall from grace for the once promising Englishman, and Newcastle supporters have been reacting to the news on social media.
This is Futbol has rounded up some of the best tweets below.
https://twitter.com/Adrian____29/status/1036738726276284417
https://twitter.com/Michael_NUFC9/status/1036853525358227456
https://twitter.com/77_SH_ER/status/1036768764493213697
I'm still waiting for the explosive player we all witnessed at the start of his time here. The Hellas Verona games I managed to see were very disappointing too.
— alan scott (@gavisconal) September 4, 2018
Take Kenedy out the team and the next best thing we have is Aarons, we have no-one at all who is willing to try and get past a man, Atsu and Murphy can't/won't do it – this for me is our biggest weakness #Nufc
— Jon Lamberton (@Lambie_Ov_Hebn) September 4, 2018
Read a lot of comments about Rolando Aarons tonight. A good kid with a bright future cruelly plagued by injuries at a crucial time in his development. Persistent hamstring problems are so hard to overcome. Best of luck to the lad in whatever his future holds #nufc
— marty lawrance (@marty_lawrance) September 3, 2018
He’s done nothing to justify being in it tbf
— Chris Cossey (@Cosseycj) September 4, 2018
Poor lad man. What a talent and just wasted. I really don’t understand. I know he has had his injuries but the lad needs to be playing. Even if it is out on loan. I hope he leaves us in the next transfer window because he needs to think about himself.
— shaun liddle??????? (@ShaunL1987) September 4, 2018
He came out of nowhere & looked a real talent. No idea what's gone wrong but real shame. #nufc
— acpatto (@AnthPatterson) September 3, 2018
MLS here he comes ??
— Kevin McManus (@kevinmcmanus23) September 3, 2018
OPINION
Does this really come as a surprise to anyone? Aarons was never going to command a regular place in the team under Rafael Benitez, who simply doesn’t seem to fancy him. He endured an underwhelming loan spell in Italy last term, and the memories of his dizzying entrance onto the scene in 2014 seem very cloudy now. The writing has been on the wall for him on Tyneside for some time, and this merely confirms that he’s nowhere near Benitez’s first team squad. Most Newcastle fans seem to have empathy for the young man, however, and recognise that injuries have severely plagued his career. It’s good to see that most Magpies fans are not willing to throw him under the bus despite his failure to live up to his explosive potential. Hopefully he is able to reignite his career somewhere in the future, because the door seems closed to him at Newcastle now.