Some big breaking news in the last few moments, with Sky Sports confirming that Newcastle have now reached an agreement to sign Valentino Lazaro.
This comes from North East reporter Keith Downie, who claims the Austrian will now fly to Newcastle to undergo a medical after the club struck a deal with Inter Milan today.
Downie also claims that it will be a loan move – but one that includes a ‘option to buy’ the 23-year-old wing-back for £20m this summer:
Sky Italy have also confirmed the news, with Gianluca Di Marzio reporting that we’ll pay Inter a £1.25m loan fee for the Austrian international.
RB Leipzig looked favourites to sign him just yesterday, with reports in Italy and Germany suggesting they were front runners and his preferred destination, but it looks like we’ve won the race.
Lazaro can operate anywhere down the right-hand side, being able to play as a wing-back or winger.
Newcastle’s second signing of the January window after Nabil Bentaleb’s arrival on Tuesday? It looks that way!
As I’ve said before if we can get Bowen and Rose in our left and right flanks could be extremely strong in an attacking sense at the very least. All of those players have a bit of grit and dig in them as well as far as I can see. It would take a change of formation with Almiron moving into a more central number 10 position in order to fit everyone in.
Kevin(Quote)