Newcastle expects “one in, one out” in January transfer window

According to the Daily Mail, Newcastle’s board is planning for a “one in, one out” January transfer window.

Craig Hope, writing for the outlet, informed that “Eddie Howe will hold a transfer meeting with sporting director Dan Ashworth and co-owners Amanda Staveley, Mehrdad Ghodoussi, and Jamie Reuben” in the next few days before returning from Saudi Arabia.

Newcastle, who is coming off defeating Al-Hilal on Saudi soil to get crowned champions of the Diriyah Cup, is reportedly negotiating the departure of long-time Howe’s pupil Ryan Fraser.

Fraser arrived in Newcastle before the 2020-21 season and is playing in his third season as a Magpie. Having his path to playing time blocked by better players in Newcastle, though, he is seeking an exit as soon as this January with Southampton expected to bid for his services once the calendar page is flipped to 2023 in a few weeks.

Whether Fraser is the “one out” part of the equation is still unknown, but it would obviously align with the reports from Saudi Arabia regarding the plans of Newcastle’s board.

Regarding the “one in” side of it, there have been multiple whispers making the rounds for the past few months. That has been the case since more than a year ago when the club got taken over by the Saudi board of owners, so every piece of news and rumor must be taken with a grain of salt.

According to Hope, one position Newcastle are “certain to bolster” is right back. Hope goes all the way to naming players, specifically “West Ham’s Harrison Ashby” and “Leeds United’s Cody Drameh”, who according to his information are “both on the shortlist.”

The most recent transfer whispers are bringing the likes of James Maddison back to the Magpies picture along with France international Marcus Thuram. While the former seems to have been of Howe’s preference for a long time now, the latter entered the discussion of late after getting called up for the World Cup.

Thuram, who plays for Borussia Monchengladbach in Germany’s top-flight division, is reported as one potential target as are all of “Moussa Diaby, Mykhaylo Mudryk, Christian Pulisic, and Leandro Trossard” who “have all been linked” to the Magpies organization at one point or another during the past few weeks and months.

The French forward, who has 10 goals in 15 Bundesliga games this season, will become a free agent next summer. Fussball Transfers is not sure about the player’s willingness to move to Newcastle, though, saying that it would require “a lot of convincing” to poach Thuram and to see him flipping Borussia’s green for Newcastle’s black and white threads.