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‘Newcastle have offered £20m for Andros Townsend but Palace want more’ – Reports

6 years ago
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On Thursday it was reported by the local (to Crystal Palace) media in South London, that Newcastle United wanted to take Andros Townsend back to St James Park (see below).

The winger having deserted the sinking ship when Newcastle were relegated two years ago.

This being despite having started only 12 games for NUFC after they had rescued him from a desperate situation at Tottenham, where he was training with and playing for the reserves.

Now we have seen further claims, this time from the national media, claiming that Newcastle have put in a £20m bid for the player, The Guardian appear to have reported this first with The Mirror closely following that, before many others then covered it.

Ironic that this follows reporting earlier in the week from the Chronicle, saying that Mike Ashley had not allowed a single bid to be made for a player in the entire first month of the transfer window.

It wouldn’t be a major surprise if Rafa Benitez did want to sign Andros Townsend BUT it would be a massive surprise if Mike Ashley had sanctioned anything like a £20m bid. As for the reports then claiming that after NUFC’s alleged opening offer for the winger, Palace are hoping for a ‘bidding war’ between Newcastle and other clubs to take the price far higher…well we are definitely heading into the realms of fantasy.

With this report/claim, most Newcastle fans would automatically be asking, if indeed NUFC were prepared to pay anything approaching that £20m figure for Townsend, then why wouldn’t they have made any bid for Kenedy, who impressed last season on loan.

Today (Saturday 16 June) is the 31st day of the transfer window and still no signings, apart from the loan to permanent prearranged deal for Dubravka, pre-season starting in 16 days time.

The Mag – Thursday 14 June 2018:

Andros Townsend is now reported to be a target for Rafa Benitez.

The winger only started 12 Premier League games for Newcastle, eight of them under Rafa, and the recently appointed NUFC manager didn’t want him to leave.

However, despite only starting 12 games and being part of a team/squad relegated, Andros Townsend did provoke a lot of resentment when along with the likes of Sissoko, Wijnaldum and Janmaat, he couldn’t get away quick enough after Newcastle went down.

After rescuing Townsend from a career going nowhere at Tottenham, Andros Townsend scored four and got two assists in only the 12 NUFC starts, form that he has never managed to recreate at Selhurst Park.

In two seasons and 72 Premier League appearances, the winger has scored only five goals and got 11 assists for Palace.

The South London Press cover Crystal Palace and they say their information is that Newcastle now want to take the player back to Tyneside this summer.

At Newcastle, he just missed out on making the 2016 England Euros squad but at Palace he has totally faded from sight, nowhere near heading off to Russia this summer.

Back in January 2017 it was claimed throughout that transfer window that Newcastle wanted to take Andos Townsend back to NUFC with a swap deal for Chancel Mbemba suggested likely to happen (see below).

Townsend turns 27 in July and he is now at a stage in his career where he needs to step it up wherever he plays his football.

With seemingly no chance of a permanent deal for Kenedy, Newcastle are desperate for a quality left footed winger in the team.

The Mag – 30 January 2017:

With Newcastle not willing to make a (permanent) transfer bid for Andros Townsend and Crystal Palace insisting they weren’t interested in a loan arrangement, any deal for the winger looked near impossible.

Then on Friday night, George Caulkin, who covers Newcastle United for The Times,  broke the story that Palace’s search for new defenders had led them to St James Park, with an approach having been made to Newcastle to take Chancel Mbemba on loan for the rest of the season.

At the same time, Caulkin said that Newcastle had renewed their efforts to try and get Andros Townsend on a loan deal.

The clear implication of course, that if a deal could be done, then both clubs could bring in a player to help them in the second half of the season, whilst losing one who is out of favour.

Monday afternoon has now seen George Caulkin give an update, stating:

“At this stage, it’s Townsend or nothing for Newcastle United this month and plenty of work to do there.”

A couple of weeks ago, Rafa Benitez first mentioned that amongst his transfer targets, there was one that he was especially interested and excited about.

With Newcastle clearly continuing to try and bring the winger back, it appears clear that Andros Townsend is who he was talking about.

Townsend was subbed in all four of Sam Allardyce’s first four Premier League matches and then dropped last weekend for the Everton home game, coming on as an 88th minute sub after the blues scored a late winner.

Making changes for the FA Cup at home to Manchester City on Saturday (watched by only 13,979!), Andros Townsend was forced to endure the full 90 minutes on the pitch in another poor performance as Palace were taken apart 3-0 by Man City.

Sam Allardyce is desperate to bring in new players after picking up just one point out of 15 and dropping into the relegation zone.

As for Mbemba, after being Newcastle’s best defender in the Premier League last season, he has been a bit unlucky to be frozen out this time and is now on his way back from the African Cup of Nations after Christian Atsu and Ghana eliminated DR Congo at the weekend.

With neither player looking set to be first choice at their respective clubs in the promotion race/relegation survival run-ins, a swap loan deal would appear to make sense for both players.

If Rafa Benitez was able to add Andros Townsend for the rest of the season, then I’m guessing most Newcastle fans would see that as a relatively successful transfer window, especially as it would be adding somebody to go straight into the first team.

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