How Sammy Ameobi is flourishing at Bolton after brutal Rafa Benitez bombed him out of Newcastle
SAMMY AMEOBI feels like his career has only just begun.
The 25-year-old spent years sitting on the bench or out on loan as he tried to cut it at boyhood club Newcastle.
But after finally fleeing the Toon nest in the summer - helped in part by Rafa Benitez’s famously brutal honesty - the winger believes he is fulfilling his potential at long last as a first-team regular at Bolton.
Ameobi told SunSport: “It kind of feels like this is the start of my career.
“I’m getting out and playing every week. I feel in the best form ever and like I’ve got a new lease of life.”
Ameobi spent the first half of last season on loan at the Trotters before being recalled to Tyneside in January after Benitez failed to sign anyone in the transfer window.
But the wideman soon discovered he was there just as cover when he made only four sub appearances for Toon in the second half of their Championship-winning campaign.
It was then that he realised he needed to leave for good - as Benitez had explicitly told him to do so the summer before.
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Ameobi added: “At the start of last season, he said ‘We’ve looked at you and you’re not in our plans. You should find a new club or go on loan’. He sent me down to train with the reserve team.
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“He is brutally honest but it is it how it is. Different managers have their different ways and that’s his, and that’s absolutely fine. I don’t have a problem with that and there are no hard feelings at all.
“When I came on loan to Bolton, to get to play week in, week out was something I’d never had before.
It was a great honour to get called back because I love Newcastle and it’s my home. So to think I might get an opportunity there was great.
“But then again, when I realised that I was down the pecking order, it got a bit uncomfortable because it wasn’t what I wanted to do, I want to play every week. I realised then that it was time to move on.
“I grew up in Newcastle and it’s my home. For as long as I remember, there has always been an Ameobi there. But times change.”
Ameobi is a name that will always be synonymous with Newcastle given the many games Sammy’s older brother Shola played for the club.
But now he is flourishing at the Macron, does he look back and think he should have quit St James’ earlier?
He replied: “It’s difficult to say. I’ve had periods where maybe I haven’t put in 100 per cent of the work that I know I should have.
“Maybe if I had, I might still be playing there now.
“After I came through and was two or three years in the first team, I was on the bench a lot which I found quite frustrating. There could have been moments with lapses of concentration.
“You think it’s going to last forever but that’s not the case. You have to put the work in. No matter how good you think you are, if you don’t work hard you’re not going to get anywhere.
“That’s something I wish I had learnt earlier in my career. But here I am and I’m grateful of the opportunity I’ve got here at Bolton. I’ll make the most of it and put the work in.”
By the looks of it, that is exactly what Ameobi is doing.
After a horror eight-game winless run with no goals scored - most of which the forward had to watch from the bench due to a knee injury picked up on the eve of the season - Bolton are unbeaten in five.
Ameobi is a big reader in his spare time, particularly loving the fantasy genre. His current book of choice is Game of Thrones-esque adventure tale Tower of Dawn.
But it has been fantasy football he has been producing on the pitch, with his three goals in five a huge help in reversing his side’s fortunes.
Yet he insists the togetherness of the squad has been the biggest factor in the stunning turnaround.
The 6ft5ins ace, who faces Preston tonight (FRI), added: “We had a lot of team-bonding going because when you lose so many games on the bounce, it can be a huge strain on the chemistry of the team.
“But this group is as tight-knit as I’ve seen. Even when we were losing games and not doing well, there was no divide in the squad.
“We did a lot of things together like go out for meals and kept our team chemistry up.
“I feel that was a massive factor as it could very easily have gone the other way where we just turned on each other.
“Thankfully that’s not the case and it’s paid dividends, we’ve got some points on the board and are closer than ever.”
