DeAndre Yedlin could be headed for the St James’ Park exit door next month, with CBS Sports claiming Trabzonspor have been in contact with the right-back.
The American outlet states that the Turkish side have ‘offered terms’ to the player and are asking to sign the soon-to-be out of contract defender on a free transfer – although that would require us agreeing to release him early, with his current deal not due to expire until the summer.
Yedlin, who has been capped an impressive 62 times for the USA, has barely featured so far for us this season but has played the full 90 minutes in each of our last three games.
He has struggled to improve since Rafa brought him to the club in 2016. Despite an impressive first season in the Championship, Yedlin has consistently been identified as a weak link in the top flight which has forced the Toon board to bring in a host of alternatives to replace him.
Now CBS Sports believe that a deal could be done next month to help shift the player on, with a move to Turkey potentially on the cards. Here is what one of their reporters tweeted out last night:
Yedlin has served the club well and at one point I actually rated him as somebody who could nail down our right back position for a while.
However, he has struggled to kick on since that Championship season and while he isn’t the worst player we have ever had, he definitely needs to be improved upon if we are to ever climb further up the table.
One attribute he always had to get him out of trouble was his pace – something I think he has actually lost a yard of over the past year or so.
Bringing in a right back of real Premier League quality would seriously add another dimension to this Toon side. A modern day beast who is competent both offensively and defensively, able to actually cross a ball accurately and link up play out wide would be my top priority in the transfer market.