TRANSFER WINDOW (January 2018)

A busy end to the winter transfer window, thankfully, saw some welcome new faces as fell as some shipped out. Details of all Newcastle United’s transfer business is right here…

INCOMING

Islam Slimani (31/01/18, from Leicester)

A match made in heaven? For so long now Newcastle have been missing someone who is truly deadly in front of goal. In Islam Slimani you can only hope that that wait is over. On loan until the end of the season Islam will be 30 in June and hardly at the start of his career. What he has got however is goals! 26 in 55 games for Algeria for a start. And whilst is record a Leicester City doesn’t look amazing on paper with 13 in 46 some of that has been due to where he sits in the pecking order at the former Champions. At senior level he has 98 goals in 233 games including 57 a Sporting in just 111 games. Whilst he joins Newcastle with a slight injury niggle Rafa will be hoping to get him into the 1st eleven as soon as he can given his current options up front continue to fire blanks. We can but hope that Slimani is the man to fire us to safety.

Martin Dubvranka (31/01/18, from Sparta Praha)

The second of the 11th hour signatures for incomings at St James Part was the Slovak international goalkeeper Dubvranka. It has long been known that Rafa wanted to strengthen between the sticks and several stories circulated before deadline day with a number familiar names, like Joe Hart, and many less so, such as this guy. At 29 he’s certainly not old for a goalkeeper and Newcastle are said to have paid the thick end of £2m for his services for the rest of the season. With 8 full international caps for Slovakia he’s not been a regular for his national team since making his debut back in 2014 although he has been more of a fixture in recent years including playing against England in the World Cup qualifying campaign. It’s not thought there is an option for a permanent option on this loan deal and only time will tell if he, and indeed Newcastle, do enough to turn this one into a long term Premier League stay.