Newcastle admit defeat in pursuit of Man United defender’s loan
Newcastle United have ended their interest in Manchester United defender Brandon Williams, according to Echo of the North.
It had already been reported by The Chronicle that the 20-year-old defenseman wanted a loan at St. James’ Park.
However, it now looks like Williams will remain at Old Trafford this month, with Newcastle admitting defeat in their pursuit of the prodigious full-back.
Williams was part of Manchester United’s FA Cup win over Watford on Saturday and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer went on to discuss the club’s hopes of making Williams an attacking right-back, despite having spent much of his career on the flank opposite.
That, added to the fact that Timothy Fosu-Mensah is allowed to request a January move instead, appears to have convinced Newcastle that a deal for Williams is no longer worth pursuing.
However, the search for another full-back may not be over yet with Djibril sidibe also mentioned as a potential mid-season rookie.
Christy Malyan from GIVEMESPORT says …
It looks like Newcastle have given up a bit too easily. Sure, Solskjaer may have described his plans to use Williams as an alternative to the right-back, but he is likely to still have more playing time at Newcastle in the second half of the season than with his parent club.
Nonetheless, the real question here is why exactly Newcastle have to come up with another mid-season back option. Having already signed Jamal Lewis and Emil Krafth on permanent contracts in the last two transfer windows, the fact that Newcastle find themselves looking for another full-back already hints at poor recruiting.
Tellingly, Lewis recently lost his place in the starting XI after a consistent running to the side, while Krafth only did 16 The Premier League has started for Newcastle since signing about a year ago and frankly seems a bit out of its depth.
Williams looks to have a bright future ahead of him and Newcastle would have done well to add him to their squad for the second half of the campaign. But the real concern here is how Newcastle plan to sign another full-back in a race stretching back several transfer windows.
Lewis was signed in the summer, Krafth arrived in January 2020 alongside Danny Rose on loan, Jetro Willems was loaned out in the summer of 2019 and in the window before that the Magpies grabbed Antonio Barreca in another loan .
Signing Williams on a temporary deal would therefore make them six full-backs in the last five transfer windows, four of them being on loan and five of them left-backs. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this is a pretty poorly done way of recruiting for a Premier League club.
And while the focus on loans inevitably has to do with Mike Ashley’s seemingly endless mission to sell the Magpies, the fact that the permanent signings also disappointed indicates a larger issue of lack of real vision or direction in the business. recruitment strategy.
Regardless of the ownership situation, Newcastle really need to understand what they want the team to look like and be proactive rather than reactive in the transfer market.