Newcastle United seem like trying to the long run at current underneath their bold new possession, with nice strides already having been made since PIF walked within the door, in addition to following the appointment of supervisor Eddie Howe.
The Magpies are at the moment in robust kind having picked up 11 factors from their opening eight league video games within the early weeks of the brand new Premier League season, solely slipping to at least one defeat to date to counsel {that a} relegation scrap might not be on the agenda this time round.
One man who has been on the periphery of that current resurgence is veteran dud, Matt Ritchie, with the previous Bournemouth man seemingly unlikely to play a outstanding function for the northeast aspect shifting ahead.
The 33-year-old has featured simply as soon as off the bench within the top-flight to this point this time period, with that solitary outing coming as a late substitute within the 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux, making a minute-long cameo towards the Midlands aspect.
The previous Scotland worldwide – who arrived at St James’ Park on a £10m deal again in 2016 – made his solely different look to this point this time period within the slender League Cup conquer Tranmere Rovers, lining up in a right-wing berth towards the lower-league opponents.
Whereas the 16-cap man’s versatility to function each in an attacking function and at full-back has seen him tackle a helpful function in current occasions, the current funding on the membership has solely served to additional shunt him down the pecking order, with a higher function prone to be laborious to return by.
A dependable determine in his six-year stint at Newcastle – with a decent haul of 24 targets and 33 assists in 190 video games in all competitions to this point – it does seem that the 5 foot 8 dud could nicely now have outstayed his welcome, with the ageing expertise seemingly now stealing a dwelling on the membership such is his restricted function.
That’s evidenced by the truth that the one-time Swindon City man remains to be raking in a slightly hefty £45k-per-week wage, having now taken residence £14m in whole from his wages over time, as per FBref.
That could be a sizeable determine for a participant whose greatest season got here in his debut marketing campaign – scoring 12 targets within the Championship in 2016/17 underneath Rafa Benitez – with Ritchie having not often fairly appeared as much as scratch on the high degree.
