Just a few weeks ago, transfer expert and renowned football reporter Fabrizio Romano confirmed our interest in Norwegian midfielder Mathias Normann and Schalke centre back Ozan Kabak.
The latter is a long-term target of ours – the BBC reported that he was all set to sign in January before Liverpool hijacked our bid – while Normann is a new name linked, but fit the bill as a combative midfielder available on loan.
That said, in typical Newcastle United fashion, it looks like we’ve missed out on both…to newly promoted Norwich.
Normann has already joined the Canaries from Russian side FK Rostov, joining on a season-long loan that features an option to buy for around £11m.
As for Kabak, Norwich are believed to have made a loan bit for the Turkish international, with Romano claiming that they’re in advanced talks to bring the 21-year-old to Carrow Road.
You can see why we lost out to Liverpool back in January – we can’t compete with the Reds right now for a host of reasons – however it would sum up the sorry state of our club if Norwich City beat us to it.
This should be a no-brainer as a loan deal, especially when we’re crying out for an athletic centre-back who can play out from defence.
