Former Newcastle United boss Rafa Benitez enjoyed a successful spell at St. James' Park as he re-established the club in the top-flight.

He led the team to the Championship title in his first full season in charge of the Magpies before finishing tenth and 13th in his two Premier League campaigns respectively.

However, it was not all sunshine and rainbows with the ex-Liverpool boss as he also made some mistakes along the way...

Shocker

One player the Spanish head coach had a shocker with was right-back Kevin Mbabu as he decided to sell the defender to BSC Young Boys for a fee Transfermarkt claim to be just £108k in the summer of 2017, having been on loan to the Swiss outfit for the 2016/17 campaign.

He had spent four years on Tyneside as a youngster and only made five senior appearances, with three coming in the Premier League, before Benitez decided to wield his axe.

The full-back admitted that his exit from the club spurred him on to achieve his success, telling The Athletic last year: “When I left Newcastle, I had it in my head that, ‘I’m going to prove them all wrong, to show them it was a mistake to let me go’. That’s what I’ve been trying to do this whole time.”

Since moving on from St. James' Park, he has certainly proven Benitez wrong. He made 56 league appearances for Young Boys and provided two goals and nine assists from right-back - earning himself a move to Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg in 2019.

Mbabu has played 78 matches for the German side to date and chipped in with three goals and five assists, playing 62 matches in the top-flight.

At the time of writing (28/03/22), Transfermarkt values Mbabu at a whopping £10.8m. This is an almighty 9,900% increase and suggests that the Magpies missed out on millions of pounds because they sold him too early into his career as he has been able to fulfil his potential and make huge strides as a defender.

They allowed a Bundesliga-quality player valued at over £10m to leave for a little over £100k and supporters will surely look back on that deal and wonder what could have been. Benitez, therefore, had a shocker as he did not give the full-back enough chances to showcase his quality and then sanctioned his sale far too early, with Mbabu now proving that it was the wrong decision.

AND in other news, NUFC now plotting move for "one of the best ever", just imagine him and Burn...