Newcastle United boss Rafa Benitez has again defended selling Aleksandar Mitrovic to Fulham.

Benitez made the controversial decision to sell Mitrovic - who split opinion among fans on Tyneside - for a fee beginning at £22million last summer.

“I've said so many times my relationship with Mitro is much better than maybe people think," Benitez replied when asked if he had been vindicated in selling the Serbian in order to bring in Salomon Rondon ahead of Sunday's trip to Craven Cottage.

"I am a professional and I have to analyse whether, in my opinion, we needed him. But I'm really pleased he's done well there and is scoring goals - although, hopefully not this weekend.

"He's a good player and he suits the style they play there. He loves football, he's very competitive, I think he's a good player. He will score goals for sure. It's just we were looking for something different for us.

"Different players suit different tactics, and Salomon Rondon has done really well for us. As a team we needed to be solid and we needed to get results all together - and we did it."