Former Newcastle manager Steve McClaren believes Aleksandar Mitrovic needs to be ‘loved’ in order to get the best out of him.
But Rafa Benitez refuses to believe Mitro's latest club are better than Newcastle.
‘Mitro’ has been quoted as saying "Fulham are a better team than Newcastle were last season" and that does not sit well with the Toon manager.
Fulham are 13 points away from Wolves, who sit in top spot in the Championship, and seven points away from second placed Cardiff ... and the London club has played one game more.
So promotions will have to come via the play-offs, or so it seems.
Mitro's comments didn’t sit too well with Magpies boss Benitez who said: “We were the best team in the Championship, so I don’t want people to have the wrong idea.
“We were the best in the Championship. We scored more goals than anyone - 85, like Fulham and Norwich. We conceded less goals than anyone - 40 like Brighton - so we were the best team.
“We won the title, we had more shots on target than anyone, so we were attacking, we were second for crosses, so we were attacking and crossing.
“Our style of football was very offensive and we had one key player - and that was Dwight Gayle. He scored 23 goals even when he was two months without playing. Even Daryl Murphy scored six goals.
“When we talk about that we cannot forget that we were the best team in the Championship, an attacking team, creating a lot of chances, with balance in terms of attack and defence - that is the reason why we won.”