Nabil Bentaleb has arrived in the North East to have a medical with Newcastle ahead of a loan move from Schalke 04, as per a report from Martin Hardy of The Times and The Sunday Times.
The 25-year-old, who played 66 games for Spurs between 2013 and 2016, is expected to be announced as a Newcastle player until the end of the season after the Magpies agreed a loan deal with Schalke.
The Algerian international has missed the entire Bundesliga season so far, after suffing a serious knee injury and although he’s now back fit, it looks like Schalke want him to go elsewhere to get some regular football.
After scoring just one goal in 66 games for Spurs, the midfielder, Bentaleb has scored 19 times in 97 games at Schalke, and Newcastle wouldn’t mind if he started chipping in with some goals at St James’ Park.
Read Newcastle Verdict
Newcastle have only scored 22 goals in 23 league games this season, only Bournemouth and Watford have scored fewer, so if Steve Bruce thinks Bentaleb can bring more goals to Newcastle, then his signing does make sense.
However, the 25-year-old hasn’t featured at all for Schalke this season and whilst he will know all about the Premier League due to his time at Tottenham, it’s fair to question if he’ll be able to come in and hit the ground running, which is what should be expected of a player on a short-term loan as he’s only got a maximum of 15 league games to play this season, plus any further FA Cup ties that Newcastle will feature in.
Bringing in a loan player isn’t the worst idea in the world, but to bring in one who hasn’t played all season seems like a big risk to us.
