TalkSport reporter Alex Crook has given his views on England defender Conor Coady and a potential transfer to Newcastle United.
Defence is something that Newcastle need to address in the upcoming January transfer window. Eddie Howe’s men have conceded 30 goals for far this campaign, with only bottom club Norwich having conceded more with 31, and whilst they did manage to keep their first clean sheet of the season this past weekend against Burnley, there is still work to do on that end.
Reports a few weeks ago suggested that Coady, who has been capped eight times for England so far, was one of their potential targets for the upcoming January transfer window, but speaking on the TalkSport GameDay podcast, Crook didn’t seem too convinced that Coady would want to leave Molineux right now if an offer were to come in for the Wolves man.
He said: “I was told last week that Coady is on Newcastle’s list of possible recruits when the transfer window re-opens. I’m not sure he’d be desperate to leave Wolverhampton Wanderers.”
TIF Thoughts on Alex Crook’s comments about Conor Coady and Newcastle United…
Will Newcastle spend more than £100m in January?
Yes
No
Coady might be able to bring something to Newcastle, with an article this summer in The Athletic praising both his leadership skills as well as his passing ability – which will fit in well with Howe’s desire for ‘technical players’ who ‘could opt for the progressive passing option whenever it presented itself’. However, as Crook hints at, getting him out of Wolves might prove tricky.
Whilst Newcastle have the financial ability to become a force in English football and the ambition to go along with it, their future is still very much up in the air. They still sit in the relegation zone, and even if they survive this season, there’s still no telling how long it would take for them to be challenging near the top of the table.
Contrast that with Wolves, who have finished seventh twice in the past three years and currently sit eighth with a realistic chance of making a push for Europe. So it may indeed take something special beyond just financial incentive in order to convince Coady to make the move to Tyneside this January and join a club that is somewhat unstable right now.
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