Rafa Benitez reveals conversation with Kenedy as winger pushes for Newcastle United recall

Kenedy is pushing for a recall at Newcastle United – after a heart-to-heart conversation with Rafa Benitez.
Kenedy.Kenedy.
Kenedy.

The winger, outstanding last season, has struggled for form after re-signing on loan from Chelsea.

Kenedy did not even make the substitutes bench for last week’s 1-0 win over Leicester City at the King Power Stadium.

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And Kenedy – who hopes to make the bench against Southampton at St James’s Park tomorrow – this week posted a cryptic message on social media site Instagram.

It read: “You learn more in failure than you will ever learn in success.”

Benitez says Kenedy responded well to a talk about his situation a couple of weeks ago.

The pair had another conversation on Wednesday.

Benitez said: “Kenedy’s fine. When a team is doing well, the players that are playing, the players that are involved in the squad...you can manage them. The players that are outside the squad, it’s always more difficult.

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“But I was talking with him, and it was a very, very good conversation, but we were not talking about the team.

“We were talking about things in general, his time in Brazil and his time in England. He’s fine.

“But if you are asking me ‘is he happy?’ – he cannot be happy. But he’s training well. He’s OK. He’s quite positive. We had a conversation for about 15 minutes about Brazil, England and the differences. All these things.

“Obviously, he’s not happy, because he’s not playing, but I think the last two or three weeks, because I had a conversation about that, he has been much, much better in terms of he’s more mature. He understands that the others are doing well.”