Newcastle new boy Barreca has hardly featured since his January move

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Newcastle United’s Antonio Barreca is a player that actually signed for the club on loan in January from AS Monaco.

With all the fanfare over Miguel Almiron, his acquisition kind of went under the radar a little bit.

It would be up to him to show the Newcastle faithful just what he’s all about with his performances on the pitch, but so far he has hardly featured.

Just days after his switch to the Premier League, he was given four minutes as a substitute by Rafa Benitez against Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley.

Since then though, the Italian has failed to make each of the Spaniard’s last three matchday squads, and fans are wondering what is going on.

No injury problems have been reported, so one has to assume that he just hasn’t done enough to warrant an inclusion yet.

Panic buy?

The fact that Benitez is happy to continue fielding Matt Ritchie as a left wing-back says a lot.

Barreca clearly hasn’t been doing enough in training to earn the trust of his manager for games yet.

It is also worth remembering that Newcastle were actually in for Jordan Lukaku in January, but the proposed loan deal fell through at the eleventh hour after the Belgian failed his medical (Chronicle Live).

It looks very much as though Magpies officials had to scramble to get some cover in, and Barreca may not necessarily have been their first choice.

Certainly his lack of action on the pitch so far would support that theory.

Barecca may well be brought in from the wilderness soon, but for now his signing is looking very much like an act of desperation.