Defender Chancel Mbemba is on the verge of exiting Newcastle United after reaching a “verbal agreement” with Porto, according to Mais Futebol.
The Portuguese news outlet claims that Mbemba, 23, arrived in Porto on Monday to put the finishing touches to his move to Liga NOS and put pen to paper on a four-year deal.
It is understood that the deal is just days away from being announced as done, which would end Mbemba’s three-year association with the Magpies.
Statistics website Spotrac reported that the former Anderlecht defender earns £35,000-a-week on his deal at St James’ Park, which currently has two years left before it expires.
Good move for Newcastle?
Mbemba is one of many pieces of deadwood at St James’ Park that needs clearing out this summer, so any deal that sees him exit the club is a good piece of business by manager Rafa Benitez.
Newcastle have too many players that are not doing anything on Tyneside and Mbemba is one of them.
For someone who is earning a fairly handsome wage, he only made 11 appearances across all competitions last season, without a single one of them coming after January.
This is definitely a good move for Newcastle, and probably a bad one for Porto.
This is Futbol rating 9/10
Likely to happen?
It looks as though this deal is all but done and will be made official in the coming days.
Mbemba has only made 59 total appearances in three years on Tyneside so it’s no great shock to see him leaving this summer, and it was perhaps a year later than it should have really happened.
However it does seem as though it will go through now once he signs this four-year deal that has been agreed upon.
This is Futbol rating 9/10