The Northern Echo have shared an update on potential permanent deals for loan trio Danny Rose, Valentino Lazaro and Nabil Bentaleb.
Scott Wilson’s piece begins by revealing that the club are ‘confident’ of keeping Rose at the club, saying there is a ‘determination’ to sign him permanently from Spurs – no matter what happens with a potential Saudi takeover.
That said, the report does state that negotiating a fee with Tottenham’s tough negotiator Daniel Levy won’t be easy, suggesting talk of a £5m fee may be premature.
As for Valentino Lazaro and Nabil Bentaleb, the Northern Echo claim both are not guaranteed to be offered permanent deals and face a battle to persuade Steve Bruce to sign them.
Wilson states that Newcastle will be ‘reluctant’ to activate a £20m option to sign Lazaro if he’s nothing more than a squad player under Bruce, even if he has impressed in flases.
Then to Bentaleb, the piece insists that the on loan Algerian could leave Schalke on the cheap – suggesting he may even be available for less than the £8.5m buyout in his current deal – but reveal that Bruce may be tempted to spend that sort of money elsewhere given how patchy his form has been since arriving from Germany.
It seems both could yet convince to club to shell out a combined £28.5m if both shine in the final four games of the season, however Danny Rose seems far more likely to prolong his stay at this stage.
Personally, I feel Lazaro could prove to be the best investment and would take no time to look a very capable player if he got a proper run in the side, yet it could well be that all three are sent back to their parent clubs and completely new targets identified if a takeover is approved!
The free agent of arrival of Mark Gillespie proves that the club may continue to make signings until a takeover is sorted one way or another, but I’d be surprised if final decisions were made on any of the above until the Premier League give us more clarity on this snail-paced Saudi saga.
