Some interesting claims on the transfer front have emerged from The Athletic’s latest Q&A session.
When quizzed about potential incomings at Newcastle United, Chris Waugh has confirmed that the club have been pursuing potential deals for free agent trio Ryan Fraser, Arnaud Lusamba and Jeff Hendrick.
He states all have been discussed in transfer talks, however perhaps the most intriguing nugget from his piece centres around a potential part-exchange involving Fabian Schar and an ‘unnamed target’ at Lyon.
Here’s a snippet from his latest Q&A session for The Athletic when asked how Bruce is looking to trade with a £30m budget:
‘The Athletic understands Newcastle have floated potential swap or part-exchange deals, as well as loans, during enquiries for players across Europe.
‘Fabian Schar is someone who could be used as a makeweight, given he has just a year left on his contract and is not among Bruce’s favoured centre-backs.
‘Schar’s name is thought to have been proposed to Lyon during discussions concerning an unnamed target — Newcastle have been linked with their forward Bertrand Traore.‘
As Waugh states, Lyon forward Bertrand Traore is someone we’ve recently been linked to, with Sky Sports revealing just yesterday that he’s a player NUFC scouts have been watching closely.
Could we be using Schar as bait in a bid to land him? Or is there another Lyon player on our radar that this may involve?
Moussa Dembele has been described as a target on more than one occasion in the past, however it would surely take Schar and a considerable amount of cash to bring him to St James’ Park.
So, a few free agents to watch our for and very interesting to hear we’re pushing for potential part-exchanges this summer – something that could work well in our bid to simultaneously sign on a budget and release a few players out of Bruce’s first-team plans.
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