According to The Sun on Sunday (08/03, page 59), Newcastle are interested in Middlesbrough’s Hayden Coulson.
What’s the story?
The report says that Toon manager Steve Bruce has instructed his scouts to keep an eye on the 21-year-old, who could cost as much as £10m.
Coulson has shown real promise this season, making 23 appearances in the Championship and grabbing a goal and an assist within his last eight games.
He’s also averaged 2.1 tackles and one interception per match.
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Willems the better option
Newcastle have certainly had problems at left-back so far this campaign. Both Paul Dummett and Jetro Willems have suffered damaging injuries, meaning that the Magpies needed to go out in the January transfer window and bring in Danny Rose on loan from Tottenham until the end of the season. However, he has struggled to adapt to the north-east side’s way of playing, having averaged a WhoScored rating of just 6.21.
Another left-back would not exactly go amiss at this very moment, but in the long run it should be Willems who fills that void rather than Coulson. Whilst he may be unavailable right now, Willems has been in good form for the Toon – from the left of defence, he has scored two goals and provided two assists, which is not to be sniffed at in a side that has found the back of the net just 25 times this term.
Not only that, he has experience at the highest level of European club competition, having featured in both the Champions League and Europa League. At his best, he is a player who can rack up 13 assists in a league campaign, as he did for PSV in the Eredivisie in 2014/15 campaign.
Not only that, he would cost the same price as that rumoured for Coulson (Kicker via Chronicle Live) if the Magpies choose to make his loan deal permanent. Whilst Boro’s left-back may be a promising proposition, Newcastle already have the solution to their problems in that position in the form of Willems.
Elsewhere, Newcastle fans react to this worrying incident from their match against Southampton.