Newcastle committed blunder with Hanley

Former Newcastle United supervisor Rafa Benitez loved a profitable time as supervisor of the membership between 2016 and 2019 after taking up from Steve McClaren.

The Spaniard was unable to forestall relegation from the Premier League on the finish of 2015/16 however solely misplaced three of his ten matches in cost after arriving at St. James’ Park.

He then led the Magpies to the Championship title and completed 10th and 13th in his two full top-flight campaigns on the helm, steadying the ship throughout his time on Tyneside.

Benitez introduced in various gifted gamers over his three-and-a-half years at Newcastle, together with the likes of Matt Ritchie, Dwight Gayle, Isaac Hayden, Fabian Schar and Martin Dubravka, amongst others.

Nonetheless, he was not faultless and one blunder he dedicated within the switch market was the signing of Grant Hanley from Blackburn Rovers in the summertime of 2016.

The Spaniard claimed that the defender introduced “potential” to the squad as he signed the 24-year-old for a price within the area of £6m, with the Scotsman placing pen to paper on a five-year contract.

Hanley struggled to interrupt into the primary workforce all through the 2016/17 marketing campaign as he ended the season with five Championship begins to his title, with ten appearances in whole. He misplaced 62% of his floor duels and the membership solely stored two clear sheets in these matches, which means that he struggled defensively as he did not dominate attackers and hold shutouts frequently.

Newcastle ended up profitable the title and earned promotion again to the Premier League, which led to Benitez deciding that the central defender was not adequate to be a key member of their workforce within the high flight.

He was offered to Championship facet Norwich for a price The Chronicle claimed to be £3.5m, which meant that the Magpies misplaced £2.5m on the centre-back in only one yr.

The previous Toon boss splashed out a £6m price on the defender and Hanley did not contribute a lot on the pitch earlier than leaving for nearly half the worth they paid for him, which is why the switch was a blunder by the Spaniard.

Journalist James Copley lately described him as a “colossus” after a Championship efficiency towards Sunderland and the centre-back seems to have discovered his stage in that division.

He has performed in two Premier League seasons with Norwich however each of them led to distress, with the Canaries ending bottom of the desk with 75 objectives towards them – greater than some other workforce – in 2019/20.

In his second marketing campaign within the top-flight with the Yellows in 2021/22, Hanley captained the workforce to a bottom-placed end with 84 objectives conceded – probably the most within the league by seven objectives.

His facet’s poor defensive file in each seasons and the truth that no different Premier League workforce has snapped him up from Norwich means that Newcastle had been proper to money in on the 6 foot 2 defender once they did as wouldn’t have been on the stage required to play for the membership within the top-flight.

It was a blunder that the Magpies is not going to look again on fondly and Eddie Howe ought to be hoping to keep away from comparable switch flops throughout his time working alongside Dan Ashworth.