In a recent interview with Newcastle United’s newest midfield revelation Mikel Merino, esteemed journalist and author of ‘Rafa’s Way’ Martin Hardy summed up something extremely important in a very apt manner.
Finding a home, too often forgotten for young footballers, has been crucial.
Amidst the frenzy of the transfer window and the buy-and-sell culture of modern football, players remain people too and like the rest of us, need a place to call home. This is what Rafa Benítez could potentially be trying to achieve at Newcastle United despite the clear red tape laid in his way by the board.
In the modern age where footballers are treated as commodities, bought and sold for extortionate sums of money, purely for their on-field contribution, it is easy to forget that away from the glamour of Premier League football, players have families and personal lives that take up the majority of their week when they aren’t featuring in the high-octane 90 minutes of football at the weekend.
Benítez, during his short tenure at the helm, has set in motion the acquisition of a young squad that have previously craved the feeling of belonging. The two most high-profile cases of this would be Merino, the 21-year-old Basque midfielder signed initially on loan from Borussia Dortmund and Joselu; the striker formerly of Stoke City, Hannover 96 and Deportivo La Coruña. Both players are summer signings that have started Black and White life rather well.
The former spent a year at the German giants Borussia Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion, home to the world-famous ‘Yellow Wall’ which holds over 80,000 spectators in its entirety. Merino struggled to make his mark in the yellow and black of Dortmund, being limited to just eight Bundesliga appearances, totalling a meagre 292 minutes.
Merino hails from Pamplona, the city in the Basque region of Northern Spain. After making his debut for hometown club CA Osasuna, Merino became a staple member of their 2015-16 promotion side before earning a move to the Bundesliga. At Osasuna he was trusted, loved and it showed. In Osasuna’s four ‘Promoción LaLiga’ matches (their equivalent to the Football League play-offs), Merino – 19 at the time – featured in each of the four matches, scoring three times and assisting once. Pivotal, to say the least.
Comfortable in his surroundings, Merino thrived, which couldn’t be further from the truth at Dortmund.
At Newcastle, Merino has hit the ground running. After shaking off Graeme Souness’ criticism in the defeat to Huddersfield Town, he has rallied and put in back-to-back Man of the Match performances against West Ham United and Swansea City.
In Hardy’s aforementioned article, Merino speaks well of the city, with an air of candid honesty about his time in Germany, and seems altogether relieved to be part of Benítez’s setup in the North East of England, reflected in his performances which have won him Newcastle’s August’s Player of the Month award.
Joselu, on the other hand, is 27-years-old but has found himself in a similar predicament to his compatriot Merino. Without a permanent home for more than a year at a time since 2011, Joselu has endured a round-trip of Europe, leaving Spain as a 22-year-old youth product of Real Madrid to join Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga. A five-goal season at the German side led to him being loaned out the following season, to fellow German club Eintracht Frankfurt, a two-hour drive away from his new home in Sinsheim.
Nine goals in 24 league appearances was not a bad return for a burgeoning striker learning his trade in a new league, but Hoffenheim elected to sell the Spaniard to Hannover 96; this meant a fourth home in the last four seasons. Another mediocre return in the Bundesliga scoring charts earned him a move to the Premier League, where he joined up with Stoke City in 2015, eager to demonstrate his abilities as many Spanish strikers had done so before him in the Premier League.
Much to his dismay, his impact was largely restricted to cameo substitute appearances. Four goals in 22 league games may look a poor strike rate, but when you consider he featured in just over 1000 minutes, it’s easier to comprehend why.
In 2016-17; yet another loan move, yet another temporary home, this time in Coruña in his native Spain. However, this loan move yielded even fewer minutes. Yet again, five goals in 20 league outings looks underwhelming but the Spaniard averaged a La Liga goal every 178 minutes. For a starting striker, that is a one-in-two strike rate.
At Newcastle United, Joselu could potentially have found his home – with a manager willing to give him a chance as a first-choice striker, a squad of hungry young professionals, many of whom have a point to prove, and a group that genuinely feel at home at Newcastle.
Having just welcomed the birth of his first child; Leo, the Spanish forward will undoubtedly be looking to settle with his partner and newborn son, and hopefully, St James’ Park can be the right environment for that to happen.
Elsewhere in Newcastle’s squad lie a number of other players who have endured the feeling of being surplus to requirements at previous clubs. Dwight Gayle, for example, Crystal Palace’s top scorer for three seasons running prior to his move north, yet his opportunities were always limited by multiple managers.
The signings of Christian Benteke and Emmanuel Adebayor, in particular, were indicative of how far down the pecking order Gayle was at Selhurst Park. In an environment where he felt important and at home – again with a newborn child and partner – Gayle thrived in the Championship, and if it were not for a troublesome hamstring problem, he would have more than likely surpassed the 30-goal mark for the season.
Christian Atsu is another. Effectively discarded, time and time again by parent club Chelsea on five separate consecutive loan moves, Atsu was clearly not wanted at Stamford Bridge. During spells at Everton and AFC Bournemouth, he made just five Premier League starts in total. Chelsea’s merry-go-round of acquiring players with potential before farming them out on loan to increase their re-sale value.
At Newcastle United, Atsu and his young family have a home at last. He earned a permanent transfer to the North East on merit, impressing throughout the Championship campaign. In an environment where he isn’t always the loanee, Atsu could potentially flourish. There’s no way of telling whether this is the case or not because in his short career to date, he has only made 20 league appearances for clubs he has not been on loan at.
The list continues, Isaac Hayden deemed not good enough for the Premier League by Arsenal after his so-so loan at Hull City in their last Championship campaign. Although he may deny it in public, the England U21 international will certainly be out to prove a point, even if it is just to himself.
Another member of the new Spanish contingent, Javi Manquillo, fits the bill of a young professional eager to prove himself and nail down a home rather than being loaned out to numerous clubs over a short period of time. Manquillo endured spells at Liverpool, Olympique Marseille and Sunderland at the hands of parent club Atlético Madrid.
Amidst the Armada being assembled at Newcastle United, he could prove to be a conquistador of the dressing room for the next two or three years, provided he maintains a high level of performance.
There is little motivation to do well as a professional footballer when you are not playing. A player out of the first-team fold, not afforded the opportunity to prove his doubters wrong will spend all week training, demoralised, before turning up to the stadium as a spectator at the weekend. Numerous loan moves are the hallmark of the dissatisfied footballer, living out of a suitcase in a hotel. Meanwhile the feeling of belonging is universal not just among footballers, and it breeds a feel-good factor.
Benítez – intentionally or unintentionally – has harnessed this, potentially to an advantage, assembling some of football’s forgotten young men, who looked destined to fall by the wayside after promising so much, into a cohesive unit at Newcastle United.
It remains to be seen whether this pays dividends and whether the collective tenacity to prove a point shines through. One thing is clear though; the players at Newcastle United this time around, do want to play for the club.
Their career aspirations may be set further above the capacity of Newcastle United at the moment, but for the time being, the squad assembled look to be young, hungry and eager to learn. After all, Newcastle did field the youngest average starting XI across the entire Premier League against Swansea.
Could the recent run of form be something to do with a collective feeling of belonging in this supposedly thrown-together squad? That theory will have to be revisited numerous times over the course of the season.
