Matt Targett Makes Newcastle Move Permanent
Newcastle United have exercised the right to buy option from Matt Targett’s original loan deal with Aston Villa back in January. The left-back joins the Toon Army on a four-year deal.
Interestingly, Villa weren’t exactly shy about announcing the £15m fee obtained from Newcastle on their website, which is thought to include an initial £3m loan slice that was banked in January.
Sound Business
Villa bought Targett for a reported £11.5m from Southampton back in July 2019, so they’ll be happy to have more than broke even on the transfer fee. Considering the club’s atrocious record of minimal returns on player sales in recent years, bar selling their prized assets like Christian Benteke and Jack Grealish, making a profit on a player that has been upgraded is a step in the right direction.
While the Villa board will be pleased with such a deal, it maybe an anomaly in this transfer window. The members of the current squad that Villa will be keen to offload will struggle to get a decent percentage of their original transfer fee back.
Still, offset the Targett transfer fee against either the Philippe Coutinho or Lucas Digne transfer fee and it’s decent business.
After being very much Villa’s most improved player last season and picking up the Players’ Player of the Year for 2020/21, an uncertain start to last season, suggested that Targett’s previous upsurge in form was connected to the fact games were being played behind-closed-doors.
Targett seemed to crack under pressure last season for Villa, being directly responsible for conceding a series of game-defining goals.
Despite this, Targett certainly seems to have been a liked presence in the Villa squad judging by the club’s goodbye statement.
‘Matt is very popular with players and staff alike and he will always have many friends at Aston Villa,” the club wrote on their club website announcement.
Newcastle Perspective
The Targett transfer for Newcastle is both a rational signing and also a dose of realism to their rebuilding program.
Despite their newly acquired sovereign wealth it would be unrealistic for Newcastle to be able to buy themselves a Champions League level squad in one transfer window, so left-back is very much a position they would be happy to consolidate in with Targett, in the short-term.
Rather than play second fiddle at Villa to Lucas Digne, Targett at least potentially gets a chance to start in pole position in the left-back shirt in Newcastle’s first XI next season.
It’s a move he was very much hoping for too.
“The fans, the players, the staff, they’ve all welcomed me and I really loved my time here for sure,” he told NUTV. “I’m glad I’ve extended for another four years. I spoke with the manager just before the Burnley game and he said he wanted to sign me.
“Then after the last game of the season, it was a bit quiet for a bit and then about a week ago it started to liven up. We’ve been back and forth and now I’m just over the moon that we got it done.”
It’s fair to say, it’s a good deal for all party’s concerned.
While Villa have been linked to a left-back already to give Digne competition, there’s no doubt if Ashley Young is deemed to have another season in him, that he would get the nod, if the right deal doesn’t come along.
UTV
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