BENITEZ PRAISES SHELVEY FOR MANAGING ABUSE WELL

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Newcastle United manger Rafael Benitez praised club player Jonjo Shelvey for his impressive behaviour even when Wolverhampton Wanderers fans abused him.


The former Liverpool and Real Madrid boss also urged the English Football Association to investigate the chants that the fans made at Shelvey.

Newcastle won the match 1-0 at Molineux on Saturday, returning to the No. 1 spot in the Sky Bet Championship log. While Benitez was happy that the result ended in his favour, he was disappointed at the claims of abuse on his player.

Shelvey was fined a whooping £100,000 and given a five-match ban in September last year for abusing Wolves defender Romain Saiss. It seems the club decided to return the favour when they hosted the Magpies.

“I think he did well, it was not easy for him,” Benitez said of Shelvey handling the situation.

“He’s a professional and was quite focused on his football which we were looking for. I don’t know how you stop it, they do investigations for other things, maybe you can do that for talking in the stands and abusing players,” Benitez added.

After serving his ban, Shelvey returned to action in December. He has been decent for the former Premier League side since his return. Benitez wants the FA to manage the situation well to avoid a repeat of the incidence.

Paul Lambert, Wolves coach, opined that Benitez’s comment was unfair criticism, adding that there was no chant at Shelvey.

“Let the FA decide but I will stick up for Wolves fans here and say there was nothing in it whatsoever. I never heard anything and I thought our fans were brilliant. I won’t let anybody criticise our supporters. I never heard anything derogatory,” Lambert said.

If the FA find the fans guilty, Wolves would definitely be sanctioned.