OPINION
The Mo Diame debacle is becoming more and more complex by the day.
The Senegalese midfielder was recalled the Rafa Benitez’s side for the Magpies’ clash with Bournemouth on Saturday, and that decision to give him the nod might just have opened up a real can of worms.
That start now means that Diame is just two games away form an automatic year long extension on his current deal that expires at the end of the season.
On the face of it, you might be thinking that is a good thing for the 31-year-old, but the problem is that, according to the Mirror, Diame has no desire to sign a year long deal.
The midfield battler is reportedly only keen on a two year extension, but the Magpies have no interest in giving him one.
That means that club and player are at an unspoken impasse. The three options at the Toon Army’s disposal are to freeze him back out of the side – which seems unlikely now that Benitez has seemingly suggested that he is above both Jonjo Shelvey and Ki Sung-yeung in the pecking order – start him twice more an automatically trigger the extension, probably to the dismay of the player, or acquiesce and give him the two year deal he wants.
The latter seems all but out of the question, especially given Mike Ashley’s notoriously hardline negotiation style, and so the issue will continue to hang over the midfielder’s head.
One thing is for certain, however, Benitez has certainly stirred things up with his selection choice today.