Newcastle captain Jamaal Lascelles and Matt Ritchie were the main talking point this week following their dispute at training.
The incident has received backlash and questions whether or not the unity of Rafa’s men remains strong but, according to Chronicle Live, it does.
Revealing Newcastle players are all:
Deeply disappointed, and that the situation has been blown out of proportion and the current squad have never been more united ahead of a tough season.
Discussions of tactics may have merely turned personal, but there is no denying the essence from both players that survival this season is their main priority no matter what.
Before sharing his verdict amongst team-mates – Lascelles converses with Rafa Benitez about playing five at the back, an opinion acknowledged, but not by all.
Matt Ritchie’s exchange with the captain took a turn for the worse, but it appears to be nothing out of the ordinary to have a competitive nature flowing through the Newcastle side.
The martyrdom of relegation in 2016 to the Championship saw quick promotion the following year back to playing field of the Premier League, and many would be inclined to agree it wouldn’t have happened without the influence Rafa Benitez embedded into his squad.
During their climb back to top-flight football a similar situation occurred between Mo Diame and Jamaal Lascelles, where the centre-half criticised the work rate of the Senegal-International and figured no-one other than himself would be better to inform him. After looking past their troubles, the might of The Magpies’ would succeed to promotion.
At the time Lascelles spoke about the events inside of the club, to the BBC:
If you were to come and watch our training we have massive demands of each other and we’re really competitive, sometimes it can get quite nasty.
Not in a disrespectful way or personal way, but because everybody wants to win if somebody is not pulling their weight it could end up in an argument or going face-to-face in an argument or going face to face, squaring off or whatever.
The other day before the game me and Matt Ritchie got into a situation in training but because we both want the same things, on the opposite side in training, we got into it.
But it’s one of them, when you speak about it after and the rest of the boys will see that when the captain and another big player for us doing that sort of thing it sets the standard and tells players you need to be on it.
Matt Ritchie at times will go mad, not because he wants to but because he thinks it will get a reaction from the boys.
The relative importance here is that conflict can sometimes lead to solutions and Newcastle need that tonight against Nottingham Forest in hopes of getting their first win this season.
