Former Newcastle loanee striker Islam Slimani could be close to securing a permanent, cut-price deal at Monaco, his current loan destination, according to website 90min.
The Algerian made the temporary switch to Monaco in the summer, and seems to have rediscovered some goal-scoring form, netting five times in just seven Ligue 1 games so far this season.
It has prompted Monaco to try to tie him down on a permanent deal, thought to be in the region of just £7.5 milion – around a quarter of what Leicester paid for him.
His loan spell on Tyneside was a total disaster, and having paid a loan fee of approximately £2m, turned out to be an utter waste of money.
Newcastle had been told a permanent deal would cost them £17.5m – a record fee for our club at that time – but thankfully, Rafa Benitez opted against the deal.
Having signed him while already injured, the loan deal arranged by Newcastle never made sense, and appeared to be more to appease worried fans that they had tried to address the striking problem, as opposed to actually solving it.
He did not even make his first appearance in a black and white shirt until the end of March, as a 75th minute substitute. In fact, three of his four appearances were from the bench, while managing only one start.
The cost of Slimani’s loan deal was astronmical
So although costing a £2m loan fee, we then had to add his wages of around £80,000 a week, which took the true cost to £25,000 a minute.
If he has finally found his niche club, where he can settle down and score goals again, fair play to him. But I am thankful – despite our current lack of goals – it is not at Newcastle.
Newcastle made some awful loan signings under Rafa Benitez, but it would be fair to say Islam Slimani was probably one of the worst, and most expensive, mistakes in that time.
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