Journalist Dean Jones has claimed that Matt Targett will remain at Newcastle United at the end of the season following his expired loan.
Matt Targett joined Newcastle United on loan from Aston Villa in January after Steven Gerrard was keen to get rid of him, to bring in Lucas Digne from Everton.
The English defender was a mainstay in the Villa side before his departure in January as he featured 17 times in the first half of the season and has since made 12 Premier League appearances since he joined Newcastle.
Interestingly, Dean Jones has now told GiveMeSport that he will most likely remain at the club in the summer.
“Newcastle were always open-minded about it. They weren’t sure whether they would want him long-term or not. From what I’m told, Eddie Howe has now decided, along with the recruitment team, that this is a good addition to this team,” Jones said.
TIF Thoughts on Dean Jones’ comments…
Matt Targett was a consistent performer in the Aston Villa side last season, he featured in all 38 Premier League games and has already made 29 appearances in the league this term. At 26-years-old, he still has a lot of time left to improve and build on the progress that he has already made as a player.
He has been pretty solid in terms of stats this season. Indeed, he has the sixth-highest average player rating at the club (6.92), has the third-highest average amount of interceptions per game (1.4), and has the fourth most average accurate passes per game (27.6), as per Sofascore.
Targett may be a good option for Eddie Howe in the short term, as he is a left-back who the manager can trust, but as the club progress in the future, then Newcastle may look for a new defender who maybe has more experience playing at a higher level as PIF chase their aims.