23-year-old Newcastle player is about to leave the club permanently – journalist

23-year-old Newcastle player is about to leave the club permanently – journalist

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND – JULY 26: Kell Watts of Newcastle United comes on for Danny Rose to make his debut during the Premier League match between Newcastle United and Liverpool FC at St. James Park on July 26, 2020 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Football Stadiums around Europe remain empty due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in all fixtures being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images )

It looks like we are finally set to see some movement in terms of outgoings at Newcastle United this summer.

All the talk is about Allan Saint-Maximin leaving St James’ Park, while Jamal Lewis is the latest player to be linked with a move away from Tyneside.

However, it appears to be Kell Watts who is the closest to calling time on his Newcastle United career.

He was linked with a return to Wigan Athletic earlier this month, and it looks like that deal is now a goer.

Kell Watts to sign for Wigan on loan and then permanently next year
According to Daily Mail journalist Craig Hope, Watts is going to sign for Wigan on loan for the second time in his career.

Why Are There So Few Black Football Managers?

Newcastle United Players Return to Pre-Season Training

Photo by Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images

The 23-year-old will spend the 2023/24 campaign at the Latics, but it will not end with him returning to Newcastle.

That is because his Toon contract expires in the summer of 2024. Therefore, Wigan have agreed to sign him permanently when his deal runs out, rather than the defender becoming a free agent.

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That is excellent news for Watts, as it means he does not need to worry about not having a club this time next year.

He is on his way to the League One side, calling time on a Newcastle career that simply did not take off.

Watts made one senior appearance for the Magpies. That came during the behind closed doors era at the end of the 2019/20 campaign. He was a second half substitute in a defeat to Liverpool at St James’ Park. Sadly for him, his one and only senior Toon appearance was inside an empty stadium.

There was hope that Watts could make the grade on Tyneside, but his potential emergence came at the wrong time. Had it not been for the takeover and the influx of signings, he might have had a chance.

Instead, he is heading to Wigan, where he enjoyed a successful loan spell in 2021/22. That ended with promotion, and Watts will hope that feat can be repeated.

If it can, he will get the chance to play in the Championship, which is something he is yet to do.

Newcastle: Magpies “remain in talks” with Axel Disasi
BY
HENRY JACKSON
PUBLISHED 2 HOURS AGO
The centre-back continues to be linked with a move.

Newcastle United “remain in talks” with Monaco centre-back Axel Disasi over a summer move to the club, according to journalist Fabrizio Romano.

How much does Axel Disasi earn?
The 25-year-old is currently earning £18,000 per week at Monaco and has matured into an important player who generally walks into the starting lineup week in, week out. Last season, he started an impressive 37 out of 38 Ligue 1 matches, highlighting both his influence at the back, and also his fitness levels and consistency.

Disasi could feel that now is the right time for him to enjoy a fresh challenge, however, and there is plenty of interest in him from Premier League clubs. Newcastle are one of them, seeing the Frenchman as a strong to bring in and make them even more formidable defensively, having only conceded 33 goals in the league in 2022/23.

He still has two years left on his current Monaco deal, but there could well be a temptation from the French side to sell him this summer, in order to receive a big amount of money, rather than a smaller fee in 2024, or even worse, losing him for free 12 months after that.

What’s the latest on Axel Disasi to Newcastle?
Taking to Twitter, Romano dropped a brief update on Newcastle’s interested in Disasi, claiming that talks are ongoing over the signing, although Manchester United are also in the picture:

“Newcastle and Man United remain in talks for Axel Disasi deal, as reported two weeks ago.”

Disasi may not necessarily be a household name compared to some centre-backs across Europe, but he is someone who could be a superb addition at Newcastle, having impressed so much more Monaco.

At 25, he is still relatively young, especially for a player in his position, and he could be viewed as Sven Botman’s centre-back partner for the next five or six years, assuming the Dutchman stays put at St James’ Park.

Disasi averaged 2.9 clearances per game in Ligue 1 last season, and also completed 84.7% of his passes across eight Europa League appearances, showing that he can impress both in and out of possession. He won 2.6 aerial duels per match in the former, too, with such dominance in the air something that is needed in what is a physical Premier League.

The fact that United are also competing for Disasi’s signature is a potential issue, considering their continued reputation as one of the world’s biggest clubs, but the days are gone of them having such a big advantage of Newcastle when it comes to signing players, with the Magpies now back in the Champions League and only going from strength to strength.

Joining this exciting project at St James’ could appeal to the Monaco ace even more than a switch to Old Trafford, and he arguably has more chance of being a regular for the Magpies, too. Manager Jean-Luc Vasseur has said that the player’s “great quality is his intelligence” in the past, further showing what a shrewd addition he could be to Newcastle’s back-line.