Benitez now working on ‘double-deal’ to sign left-back & midfielder on loan – Report

According to the Daily Mail, Rafa Benitez is now working on a deal to sign both Benfica midfielder Andreas Samaris and Monaco left-back Antonio Barreca.

It’s been made clear since a deal for Jordan Lukaku fell through that we were back in for Barreca, however it’s interesting to see that sources in England are now backing up reports over the weekend that we’d made a loan move for Greek international midfielder Samaris.

He’s a player Rafa’s been regularly credited with an interest in over just about every transfer window since we earned promotion, and the fact he’s now out of favour at Benfica and out of contract in the summer could now play into our hands.

That said, the Mail do state that we could be set to face competition from Porto for Samaris – although it’s hard to know if Benfica would sell to their Portuguese rivals.

The Daily Mail aren’t the only ones reporting our interest in Samaris either, with the Daily Star’s Aaron Stokes claiming a £500,000 loan fee is being discussed for the 29-year-old:

Any deal for either would appear to be loan move once again (shock horror!), however the signing of either would be a welcome boost – with us lacking options at left-back and in the middle of the park right now.

Not only are Shelvey, Ki and Diame all nursing niggling injury that they’ve struggled to shake off, the signing of 6ft 2′ holding midfielder Samaris could finally allow an unsettled Isaac Hayden to move on.

As far as Barreca’s concerned, it looks like he could be the left-back that comes in to compete with Dummett and give us a left wing-back option if we opt for 5 at the back – but the same was said about Lukaku, and look how that panned out!

(Fancy writing for us? Send any articles/ideas over to us at [email protected] & we’ll get back to you!)

About Olly Hawkins

As a Junior Magpie since birth and season ticket holder, I eat, sleep and breathe all things NUFC! Here at the blog, I aim to bring you news, views, match reports and transfer exclusives as and when I get them.

One thought on “Benitez now working on ‘double-deal’ to sign left-back & midfielder on loan – Report

  1. How can Rafa be working on any deal when he has consistently said that he has no idea what is happening with transfers?

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