OPINION
Newcastle United must get rid of loan flop Kenedy as soon as possible if they can wrap up the swoop to sign Atletico Madrid winger Gelson Martins.
Spanish newspaper AS has reported that the Magpies have made a loan offer worth £4.4million for the Portugal international, who has struggled to earn regular game-time at Atletico since joining them from Sporting CP in the summer.
It is understood that Atletico are keen to free up their wagebill by letting Martins, 23, leave and the player is said to be very keen on joining a club in the Premier League.
Newcastle would be pulling off a major transfer if they were to sign Martins and judging by a report by the Sun in their live transfer blog on Wednesday [08:58am], Mike Ashley could even be happy to pay the loan fee to sign the explosive attacker.
Rafa Benitez has been unable to sign anyone this month due to Ashley’s grip on the club’s finances, so to get to a stage where they are offered up money to sign a player is quite a significant step forward.
Martins is an upgrade on every single winger that Benitez has in his squad at St James’ Park, which means that his arrival should be followed up by Kenedy being sent back to Chelsea.
While the Brazilian winger did impress when he joined the Magpies on loan last January, he has been a total failure in his 20 first team appearances this season and has only started two of the last nine Premier League games due to issues with fitness and form.
Newcastle are only allowed to have two players on loan from other Premier League clubs, so if Kenedy is got rid of, Benitez would free up a slot to sign another loanee for the second-half of the season who could have more of an impact.
It would be a superb piece of business if the Magpies were able to bring in a player of Martins’ calibre.
Benitez would also be endearing himself towards the fans even more by offloading a drain on the club like Kenedy as well.