Victor Fernandez has lamented not receiving a chance to impress in the Newcastle first team and cited the example of Ayoze Perez to show what a player can do if he gets an opportunity.
Fernandez spent more than three years at the club without making a single senior appearance and was eventually released this summer.
He was once a highly rated youngster, but the 22-year-old insisted that he never got the opportunity to impress at Newcastle and carve out a place for himself in the first-team squad.
Fernandez pointed out the opportunities his compatriot Perez received at Newcastle and how he has blossomed into a player who could play in the Champions League next season.
He also stressed the chances the Longstaff brothers, Sean and Matty, received and while he conceded that injuries stalled his growth, the Spaniard feels he did enough to at least get a few opportunities to impress.
“If you don’t get the chance, you can’t take it. Ayoze got it at 20 and he grabbed it”, Fernandez told The Athletic.
“I look at Ayoze and I think, ‘He’s my inspiration’. I look at what he is doing, maybe qualifying for the Champions League with Leicester, and I think, ‘I want to do that’.
“Some of it is about timing and, so far, it hasn’t worked for me. If you look at Matty and Sean Longstaff, they had chances and they took them.
“Tom Allan could do the same. I never got that and I felt I deserved it.
“Injuries affected things but, even so, I felt I did enough before that to at least get some cup games, to show myself.”
Fernandez only featured in the Under-23 team at Newcastle despite training with the first team from time to time.
