Newcastle in lead to sign Benitez target, need to be creative to ensure work permit granted

Struggling so far in the transfer market, Newcastle could be, once again, facing some more bad luck if OwnGoalNigeria are to be believed.

Rafa Benitez’s side have been looking for a striker all summer, yet with the new Premier League season about to start, the Magpies still don’t have their man.

One of the strikers they appear to be targeting is Olarenwaju (Larry) Kayode, currently playing for Austria Wien, whose director of football confirmed earlier on Friday the club were in talks with an unnamed club to sell last year’s Austrian Bundesliga top scorer.

Bagging himself 17 goals and four assists in 33 league appearances, the 24-year-old appears to suit what Benitez wants out of a new striker at Newcastle, yet there’s still the issue of the work permit.

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Revealing that Newcastle is the ‘unnamed’ club, who are now ahead of Watford to sign the Nigeria international, OwnGoalNigeria explain the fact he only has three international caps to his name for now means he does not automatically qualify for a work permit (requiring to have appeared in 75% of your national team’s games over the past year).

There is, however, another way around it.

Certain requirements need to be met, and the easiest way would be for Newcastle to ensure the fee taking him from Austria Wien to St James’ Park is ‘between the 50th and 75th % of all transfers to Premier League clubs in the previous two windows’ (DH in Belgium claimed that stood at around €9m back in July), and that his wages are ‘between the 50th and 75th % of all the top 30 earners at the club’.

It’s certainly doable, especially if Rafa Benitez is intent on granting him first-team status right away.

There is hope.

It just means Newcastle need to spend money.