With Andros Townsend’s Newcastle return now looking ‘extremely unlikely’ – who is the alternative?
Only six months ago, Andros Townsend jumped ship at the first attempt as Newcastle dropped out of the Premier League for the first time since 2009, with the England international opting for a move back to his hometown with Crystal Palace. Back to present day and Andros finds himself out of favour, under different management and playing for a team who look destined for the championship.
With Newcastle seemingly cruising towards an instant return to the Premier League, various reports have linked Townsend with a sensational return to Tyneside during the January transfer window as Benitez looks to add some more impetus to the attacking threat at his disposal.
A move for Townsend would make perfect sense, as he flourished in Newcastle’s relegation run-in, scoring four times and assisting twice in 12 appearances, and could be excused for leaving the club “to save his England career” stating that playing in the Championship would “make it nigh on impossible to get in the squad.”
Turns out the grass isn’t always greener. In 21 appearances for Palace, a lot of which have been late cameos from the bench, Townsend has scored and assisted only twice for Crystal Palace, a club who themselves are also in similar dire straits to those which Newcastle were faced with last season.
The Mail are also reporting that Sam Allardyce is keen to offload Townsend in a bid to free up the wage bill and to add some much needed recruitments to his squad to fend off relegation fears.
For all it sounds like a perfect reunion, George Caulkin of The Times has stated that any move for Townsend is “extremely unlikely at this point”. Even with the bookmakers still heavily fancying a return, as Palace look to recoup the fee to which they paid, however with Newcastle only wanting a loan the deal looks less and less likely to happen this month.
With Rafa Benitez still looking for January reinforcements, The Chronicle are reporting that Newcastle are looking at potential alternatives. With Swansea City’s Modou Barrow being linked with a loan move to St James’ Park, however, the rumours of a £5million release clause are false.
Both deals seem dependant on each other as Newcastle primarily target the talisman in Townsend, but will fall back on Barrow if no deal can be brokered.
