According to the Daily Mirror, Newcastle are now weighing up a move to sign Nottingham Forest star Joe Lolley in January – with Premier League rivals Fulham also said to be keen.
The winger has been in impressive form this season, bagging 7 goals and 7 assists so far – as well as scoring an absolute stunner in Wednesday night’s 5-5 draw at Villa Park; a game where he also registered a stunning FOUR assists.
Here’s a snippet from the Daily Mirror’s transfer blog, with them now claiming that we are ‘considering’ making a bid to sign the 26-year-old in the new year:
Newcastle and Fulham are weighing up January bids for Nottingham Forest’s Joe Lolley.
Attacking ace Lolley, 26, has been in fantastic form for Forest in the Championship this term.
He scored a screamer and had four assists in Forest’s incredible 5-5 draw at Aston Villa on Wednesday night.
The ex-Kidderminster youngster has proved a bargain since joining from Premier League Huddersfield in January for £450,000.
But now Newcastle and Fulham are considering offering Lolley a swift return to the top-flight.
Forest will want to hold on to their star man, who is under contract until 2022, but they stretched themselves spending £25million in the summer on 17 new players.
?? Joe Lolley
?⚽️ Scores this screamer AND has a hand in Forest's other four goals! #NFFC @NFFC @JLolley23 pic.twitter.com/dDTCRCAPJ7
— Sporting Life Football (@SportingLifeFC) November 29, 2018
The long range stunner he scored at Villa this week will have certainly caught the eye, but whether this is the sort of player we should be looking at in January is open for debate.
The likes of James Maddison – who Leicester signed for £20m plus from Norwich over the summer – has proven that there are players playing in the second tier who are more than capable of making the step up, however it’s always a risk.
Lolley may be in good form, but he has only managed a combined 6 goals and 4 assists in his last two seasons, so I’d argue that we need more proven players who are ready to hit the ground running in January – especially if we’re involved in a relegation scrap.
There is a reason why Hudderfield let him go. If he isn’t a LB or AM or prolific CF then, …why? He’s 26 – not one for the development squad. If NUFC want to be an established PL club, they need to start acting like one, and not a club full of squad-level fodder.
Peter(Quote)
“Squad fodder”, very funny. He’s scored almost as many goals as your whole team of “world beaters” or is that horse beaters?
Ichabod Crane(Quote)