Last January, Newcastle United were in desperate need of some reinforcement down the sides of their defence, and Valentino Lazaro was brought in on loan from Inter.
The Austrian was a bit out of favour under Antonio Conte in Italy, and, himself seeking more minutes on the pitch, arranged with his agent to move to St James’ Park for the second half of the campaign.
He played, but he never managed to become a regular, starting just four games from a possible 13 in the Premier League, eventually returning to Inter.
There was a clause in the deal to make the move permanent in case Lazaro set the world alight, but it was never used by the Magpies, who were happy to let him go.
Instead of staying at Inter, he found himself a new loan, this time to Borussia Mönchengladbach, where he has yet to feature due to injury.
Speaking to FC Inter 1908 on Wednesday, the attacking wing-back explained what happened at Newcastle.
He said: “After the Coronavirus stop, they told me in England that being a player on loan, they couldn’t play me a lot and from there on in I played less. That’s why I spoke to my agent and decided to look for a new loan”.
