Newcastle are one of several Premier League sides who have ‘enquired’ about the availability of Chelsea midfielder Danny Drinkwater according to TEAMtalk.
The report states that Leicester are keen to bring him back to the King Power Stadium if he is not in Maurizio Sarri’s plans at Chelsea, but they also claim that ourselves, Southampton and Crystal Palace have made contact over a potential deal.
In an ideal world, we’ll bring in a new centre-midfielder over the next week and a half to allow Isaac Hayden to leave following his recent transfer request, however a deal for Drinkwater seems highly unlikely to me.
A loan deal is out of the question as NUFC cannot loan two players from the same club (we already have Kenedy from Chelsea) and the fee involved for a potential permanent deal would no doubt be north of £15m – not forgetting the fact he earns an alleged £120,000 per week at Stamford Bridge!
If a loan deal was possible it’d make a lot of sense for all parties, but other club’s interest, the fact it’s not a top priority position and the the price we’d have to pay (both transfer fee and wages) mean this one’s a non starter as far as I’m concerned.
I have a sneaking feeling that Newcastle will try to make Kenedy deal permanent before the end of this window, especially if we can get Rondon on a loan deal. I think the loan was arranged in case we had to splash out cash up front on a striker, but if we manage a loan for Rondon, we could still spend the Mitro money on buying Kenedy outright.
That will potentially free up a loan position for another player from Chelsea, although I doubt it will be Drinkwater. Haven’t they got some spare strikers……?
Pete(Quote)