This summer may be the first time Rafa takes the team far away to play in a tournament that will be lucrative to the club.
Newcastle United have been invited to take part in the Premier League Asia Trophy in Shanghai, China, this summer.
Shanghai is a beautiful show city in south-east China on the coast.
There’s a report in the Mirror today that says Newcastle have agreed to participate in the tournament along with current Premier League Champions Manchester City, West Ham United, and Wolves.
Rafa Benitez – Newcastle manager
It turns that when we were managed by Sir Bobby Robson in 2003 we took part in the inaugural tournament with Chelsea, Birmingham City, and the host country in that first year was Malaysia – and they were the fourth club in the tournament.
We finished runners-up to Chelsea that year.
Rafa has preferred to have five days training in Ireland to start the preseason, and it will be interesting to see if that is still possible this summer.
Liverpool won the trophy two years ago when it was last held in Hong Kong and also included Premier League clubs Leicester City, Crystal Palace, and West Brom.
It will be interesting to know how much money Newcastle will get for participating in the tournament.
But at the very least the Newcastle United brand will be a lot better known in China because of our participation.
Football’s popularity is proliferating in the far east in general and China in particular.
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3 comments so far
Jib
Mar 3, 2019 at 6:53 AM
Comment #1Not sure if this is an indicator Rafa is staying or not
cyprus
Mar 3, 2019 at 6:53 AM
Comment #2Hard to talk much about yesterday’s game because, TBH, we we’re outplayed everywhere on the pitch. Hats off to them for improving so much. We’ve gone toe to toe with teams like Wolves, Watford, but this was a different deal altogether. We were chasing shadows for much of the game.
I’ve still got my eye on those three teams and they all lost. So, it’s not exactly backs to the wall. A win or two and we’ll really be able to breathe.
This was a reality check. All of our players must be at their best in order to compete and that was not the case yesterday, for anyone.
Jib
Mar 3, 2019 at 7:08 AM
Comment #3It wasn’t quality we lacked in midfield but leadership
West Ham had it – they had some wise old heads out there