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Newcastle have agreed a fee, believed to be about £12m, to sign Tottenham’s England winger Andros Townsend. The 24-year-old has made just three substitute appearances in the Premier League this season and his Tottenham career was all but over once he had a spat with Fitness Coach Nathan Gardiner.
This will be the third signing for Newcastle this Month as they have already added Jonjo Shelvey and Henri Saviet to their ranks, it seems as if Mike Ashley has loosened the purse strings with the club spending just under £30m in a bid to secure Premier League survival this season.
Although Newcastle will have their work cut out as they find themselves in the bottom 3, 2 points behind Norwich and safety but the signing of England International Townsend will show that The Magpies have identified key areas that need improving and that they are certainly up for the challenge between now and May.
As for Townsend, a move would have been necessary to rejuvenate his hopes of getting a seat on the Euro 2016 plane this Summer. There’s no doubt that he is a favourite of Roy Hodgson’s but I’m not sure even he could justify picking Townsend if he didn’t feature between now and the end of the season.
For Spurs this frees up a slot in the squad and that would intimate that the intention to get a new face in between now and the end of the week has increased, whether that is a Striker remains to be seen with the injury to Jan Vertonghen maybe a Centre Midfielder could be purchased to allow Eric Dier to slot in at the back. This is all conjecture so Spurs fans will have to be patient.
Mauricio Pochettino is said to have stepped in and requested that Daniel Levy agree a lesser fee than the original quoted £14m, it was more of a move of good grace due to the Argentine being impressed with Townsend’s attitude post demotion than opposed to getting him off the books at all costs. Also Alex Pritchard will be due to return from long term injury so Townsend would be deemed further surplus to requirements.
Sometimes a player/manager relationship breaks down and once it’s gone it’s better for all parties for a move to take place, which I would imagine this deal would facilitate. Best of luck Andros
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Cheers
Dan