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Mike Ashley has been heavily criticised for Newcastle’s transfer business and rightfully so, but there is one deal that the Magpies owner played absolutely perfectly.
On the chalkboard
This time last season, Kenedy was the hottest prospect Newcastle had got their hands on in quite some time.
Joining the club mid-way through the last campaign on a six-month loan, he scored two goals and added two assists in 13 starts, playing a huge role in the surge that took the Magpies from relegation trouble all the way into the top ten.
And last summer, plenty of fans begged Ashley to make the Brazilian’s loan move into a permanent one, just as he did with Martin Dubravka.
But while Dubravka represented fantastic value at £3.6m, Chelsea wanted a whopping £20m for Kenedy, a figure that Ashley unsurprisingly baulked at.
Still, such was the impact of Kenedy’s first stint on Tyneside that even at such a ridiculous price for a player with so little senior experience plenty of fans wanted to pull the £20m trigger.
Nearly 12 months on, and it’s pretty clear who got the better of this war of words between the Toon Army and their much-maligned leader.
Kenedy has scored just once in 24 appearances this term while his shooting, passing and defensive contribution have all plummeted, per Whoscored.
He is getting dispossessed more this season, completing barely half the tackles, creating half as many chances all while his overall pass completion rate has dropped from 77% to 72%.
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Clearly, the 23 year-old’s motivation has gone off a cliff and Ashley saw it coming. However, it would have been foolish to not sign him at all after such a productive first spell with the club, so another loan move was the best possible solution.
He doesn’t get much right, but the 54 year-old Magpies magnate absolutely nailed this one.