2 Transfer Ins And Outs For Newcastle In January
Newcastle, most notably its fans and its manager Rafael Benitez, are desperate for new faces in January though as talks go on and on they may still be doing their business with Mike Ashley and his team in charge of the club, rather than the much more positive Amanda Staveley.
With this in mind, targets will be realistic and in some cases, underwhelming, though changes will undoubtedly come. Here are two such transfers we may see happen, one arrival, one departure:
James Maddison (Norwich City, in)
There’s talk of Cenk Tosun and Luke Shaw and neither are completely unrealistic of course, though just in case the debit card remains near its limit, the fans shouldn’t get too excited about incomings at Newcastle. So top end Championship players with potential remain distinct possibilities.
Newcastle have already signed Jacob Murphy from Norwich City, may yet go back for his brother and are now interested in James Maddison.
Rafa still needs someone stronger and more talented than Mo Diame to play just behind the striker and Maddison fits the bill. It would be no surprise to see him arrive at Newcastle if a fee can be agreed and he is undoubtedly someone who can play Premier League football.
Jack Colback (out, anywhere)
A sad turn of events in the social media age is that for some reason, hometown players are often the butt of most criticism rather than being supported more than others, and Colback definitely got that last season.
Since then though, he has done himself no favours; refusing to take part in a practice match having been told he could leave in August and despite plenty of suitors wishing to offer him first-team football, Colback preferred to hang around there and collect his wages without playing.
That sort of thing doesn’t go down well with Newcastle fans and has not exactly ingratiated him with the board either. It really takes something special to make Newcastle’s fans and owners agree on something and so Colback is a special case.
He needs to leave to free up space in the squad, money from the wage bill and to stop being a disruptive influence just by choosing this stance. A host of Championship clubs could give Colback a contract and Leeds United in particular, seem keen to take him, at least on loan. So his departure looks imminent.