Needing reinforcement on the right hand side of his defence, Steve Bruce used the January transfer window to his advantage and brought in Valentino Lazaro on loan from Inter.
The Austrian was struggling for game time in Italy under Antonio Conte following his £20m transfer from Hertha Berlin in the summer, and, despite interest from elsewhere, a temporary deal was sorted out.
Said transfer included an option to make the move permanent, and the idea was for Newcastle United to evaluate the wing-back during the second half of the campaign before deciding whether to commit €23.5m to that end.
Unfortunately for the Magpies and Lazaro, the Covid-19 pandemic has scuppered any chance of that for now, limiting his outings to five in all competitions, including a goal against West Brom in the FA Cup.
With all that in mind, his future at St James’ Park is now uncertain, regardless of the change of ownership, because, as Tuttosport point out, €23.5m is a lot of money for any club.
If Newcastle decide not to trigger the clause, then Lazaro will have to return to Inter, where one of two things will happen: either he’ll be moved on, with the Italian newspaper pointing out he has a good market in Germany, or Conte ‘could give him another chance’.
It’s stated the former Chelsea manager was ‘one of the staunchest supporters of his purchase’ at the club, which we’re not 100% sure about since he only started him three times in Serie A before his loan.
Not only that, but the arrival of Victor Moses in January only adds more competition for Lazaro, who already had to contend with Danilo D’Ambrosio and Antonio Candreva for a spot down the right of Conte’s 3-5-2.
But that’s just how we see it. Maybe the Italian has a special plan for Lazaro we don’t know about.
