Newcastle made a mistake by not signing a right-winger in the summer, but the Northern Echo report Steve Bruce is looking at Sevilla’s Rony Lopes to rectify that in January.
The Portuguese international only signed for the La Liga side in August, but has only been included in the match squad once, in which he made an 11 minute cameo appearance.
Bruce confirmed that plans for the next transfer window were set to be formulated between himself and the backroom team in the coming weeks.
He said: “We’ve been looking at getting injured players fit, but in the next couple of weeks we’ll look ahead to January.
“I’ll sit down with Steve [Nickson] and try to identify some real quality that can make us better.”
Lopez would represent a risk, with him relatively unproven, but aged just 23, he is the perfect mould of player that Mike Ashley likes to bring to the club.
But with him having only been in Spain for a month, it remains to be seen if the the La Liga side would even contemplate letting him go.
A loan deal could suit all parties
With him only featuring sparingly, they may be open to loaning the winger out, and a temporary deal could suit all parties, with Newcastle minimising the risk, and Sevilla giving the youngster time to develop in the first-team set-up elsewhere.
If a loan deal can be agreed, it would be one worth pursuing, with the former Manchester City Youth Graduate being familiar with the English game.
A temporary deal would let Newcastle see if it would be worth making a permanent move, but the sheer need for bodies on the right would mean any player being signed would be an improvement on what we currently have.
Of course, there is still a lot of time between now and January, and countless other names are sure to be thrown out into the public domain in that time, and how many will be genuine targets, no one knows.
But it appears that Bruce is aware of the need for a right-winger, which begs the question: why it was not prioritised in the summer?
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