Newcastle United are on course to avoid relegation to the Championship as Eddie Howe has galvanised the club in recent months.
The Magpies are nine points clear of the bottom three as it stands and have only lost two of their last 11 matches in the Premier League.
Howe has led them out of the relegation zone and may look to restructure his squad with incomings and outgoings in the summer. Who could be facing the axe?
Sell him
One player who the 44-year-old must brutally axe from the club at the end of the season is midfielder Jeff Hendrick, who is currently on loan at QPR in the Championship.
The 30-year-old’s current contract with the Magpies does not expire until 2024, having signed for the Tynesiders two years ago. This means that the club must cut ties with him in the summer, or else he will continue to pick up a wage for another two years without contributing much on the field.
Toon reporter Scott Wilson previously dubbed him a “liability”, while club legend Steve Howey once ripped into the midfielder for a sending off which he deemed “embarrassingly bad”.
That quote from Howey can also be used to describe how Hendrick has played for the club in the Premier League since 2020. He has not been good enough for a top-flight team for a number of years, and it is now time to finally axe him on a permanent basis.
Since the start of the 2018/19 campaign, his SofaScore rating of 6.63 across just three outings this term is the best he has managed. He registered scores of 6.51, 6.55 and 6.58 respectively across the three seasons leading up to the current one, which shows that he has consistently underperformed and failed to impress for both Burnley and Newcastle. Indeed, he ranked a pitiful 25th out of 26 in the Toon squad for SofaScore ratings last season.
Therefore, the £50k-per-week dud must not be at St James’ Park by the end of the summer transfer window. Howe must push the club to sell him before the end of August or, at the very least, loan him out for the entire 2022/23 campaign with an option for the other club to sign him at the end of that agreement.
His statistics in the top flight are horrific and do not suggest that he will be a player of use to the head coach heading into next season. At the age of 30, Hendrick is entering the twilight of his career, and the Magpies may not have a better chance to cash in on him before he regresses further and his value dwindles with age.
AND in other news, Left for £0, now the next Sancho: NUFC will have nightmares over 18 y/o “huge talent”…
