Jorginho a ‘prime target’ for Newcastle United in January — report

A throwaway line at the end of an unrelated story from the Daily Mail claims that Newcastle United have made Chelsea Vice-captain Jorginho their “prime target” for the January transfer window.

It’s just two lines, so there isn’t much depth to the story, even by the Mail’s standards, but it references Jorginho’s contract, so Newcastle might be looking at the possibility of a cut-rate deal for the 31-year-old, since it doesn’t look like we’ll be extending his contract, despite his clear desire to stay. Newcastle isn’t exactly London, but it’s closer than Italy or Spain (say, previously linked Juventus or Barcelona).

The Magpies look to be moving in the right direction under Eddie Howe and moved up at least temporarily to second in the table with last night’s 3-0 win away to Leicester City. They did however lose midfielder Jonjo Shelvey recently once again for 6-8 weeks thanks to a calf strain — he had just returned from a previous lengthy hamstring injury — which could have reaffirmed their intentions to look at reinforcements in the transfer window.

Given the way our season is going, letting Jorginho go in the winter may be a smart financial decision, getting a token transfer fee for a veteran player who doesn’t seem to be in our rebuilding plans going forward.