With Danny Rose’s signature confirmed at St James’ Park, the club’s 25-man squad looks to be full to the brim, leaving Ki Sung-Yeung as the most likely absentee.
According to reports in the Daily Star, the South Korean international is set to lose his squad place to Danny Rose, meaning that the £60,000 per week player could spend the next half of the season rotting away with the reserves.
The piece claims that the club have been trying their hardest to offload the former Sunderland player, however, the player’s astronomical salary has put other clubs off signing him.
Even with the long term injuries of Jetro Willems and Paul Dummett, there still is not space for the midfielder due to the arrivals of both Nabil Bentaleb and Valentino Lazaro.
At the moment, it is said that the club are wanting to sell both him and potentially Christian Atsu, who are now both further down the pecking order due to the dealings. West Brom are allegedly interested in the latter, yet there has been no bid made yet.
Would you prefer to sign Rose or Willems in the summer?
Rose
Willems
Considering the player has not really had a chance all season, to have the player not make the 25-man squad is not very surprising at all.
Alternatively, there was always a decent chance of him leaving the club, but no one has yet made the punt. Celtic, a club which Ki used to play for, were apparently interested in his services, but again the contract seems the main problem.
So far this campaign he has amounted just a measly 173 minutes in all competitions, with the central midfield options of Jonjo Shelvey, Isaac Hayden, Sean Longstaff and Matty Longstaff being preferred choices.
With one day to go, nothing seems like happening and it seems that Ki will finish his Newcastle career by watching from the sidelines.
It is perhaps a bit of a surprise that the club couldn’t work out some sort of deal to get him off his hands. Even if the club were still having to pay for half of his wages it would make sense, as he won’t be able to play any league football for the club if he doesn’t make the squad.