It was not a huge surprise to see Newcastle United reward Fabian Schar with a one-year contract extension.
Fabian Schar has been instrumental to Newcastle United’s success this season with 33 appearances across all competitions.
However, until a few days ago the 33-year-old defender was set to depart St James’ Park at the end of the season when his contract expired.
Schar was congratulated by teammates once Newcastle finally announced on Friday that a new one-year extension had been signed. Having joined the Magpies in 2018, Schar will now spend an eighth year on Tyneside.
How Fabian Schar’s deal impacts Newcastle transfer plans
Given that Newcastle are already light of options at centre-back, it wasn’t a shock that the club decided to keep Schar around.
With Lloyd Kelly joining Juventus in January and Jamaal Lascelles facing an uncertain future, it leaves just Schar, Dan Burn and Sven Botman as the three natural centre-backs in Eddie Howe’s squad.
Therefore, The Athletic claim that signing a right-sided centre-back in the summer remains Newcastle’s top priority even after Schar’s contract extension.
If Schar did depart this summer, Newcastle were aware that they’d likely have to spend “tens of millions” on another replacement, stretching the budget available to sporting director Paul Mitchell.
With Newcastle also wanting to invest in a right-sided forward, striker and goalkeeper – it was unanimously decided that Schar should stay with at least one top-class centre-back brought in to add depth and competition.
The four centre-back targets on Newcastle United’s radar
With Newcastle returning to Europe next season, Howe will want to avoid the injury disaster that occurred during the last Champions League campaign.
That means new faces will have to arrive in the summer and a new centre-back is at the very top of the shopping list.
According to the same Athletic report as above, there are four names on Mitchell’s transfer radar – Marc Guehi, Illia Zabarnyi, Ousmane Diomande and Antonio Silva.
Newcastle remain interested in Guehi after having several bids rejected by Crystal Palace in the summer. There is bound to be rival Premier League clubs also after his signature, so a deal will highly depend on the asking price.
The other proven Premier League star on the list is Zabarnyi, but ironically Dean Huijsen could stop Zabarnyi joining Newcastle as Bournemouth will not want to lose both stars in the same window.
If Newcastle want to look outside of the Premier League then a £50m deal for Diomande is possible with the Magpies long-term admirers of the 21-year-old Sporting defender.
Finally, Newcastle have monitored Benfica’s Silva, who is considered a huge prospect in Portugal. Signing players without Premier League experience poses more risk, but it could potentially strike gold.
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