Howe must now brutally axe £50k-p/w Newcastle "liability" who's "embarrassingly bad" - opinion

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?

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