Long-term Newcastle United target Jarrod Bowen looks set to have his contract extended by Hull City as part of a clause within his contract.
The prolific midfielder has less than six months remaining on his current deal, however, the club has the option of extending that for a further year if they do it by March – something which they would surely be foolish not to do given his form.
TEAMtalk have reported that the club have told the player that they will be exercising the option to extend his contract, and given the timing of this extension, it might allude to the player staying beyond this transfer window.
Considering the club has had the option to extend his contract all season, they still have not done so until now – why? There are probably plenty of reasons, however, it is interesting that they do this right at the back end of the January transfer window – perhaps it could imply that they wouldn’t have bothered if they could source a sale for him within the month, and now they have to extend it to ensure that he doesn’t leave on a free when his deal expires.
Both Newcastle and Leeds have been the two teams that seem to have targeted him the most. The TEAMtalk report suggests that both clubs have disagreed over the Tigers’ £17m asking price, and with the Magpies already adding Nabil Bentaleb and Valentino Lazaro this window, a deal for Bowen might now be difficult to see, especially considering Lazaro tends to play on the right-wing.
Are the club making a mistake not pursuing Bowen?
Yes, pay whatever it takes
No, he doesn't have top-flight experience
Despite this, goals from attacking players seem to be the most obvious problem at Newcastle at the moment. In the entire league season thus far, wingers and forwards have contributed just four of Newcastle’s 24 goals from 24 games, with Miguel Almiron grabbing two and Joelinton and Allan Saint-Maximin having one each.
Then you look at Jarrod Bowen – 16 goals in 28 league games – and it’s hard to see that he couldn’t add some important goalscoring pedigree within this team. His ability to cut in on the left is a lot different from the options of Almiron and Saint-Maximin at the moment, and the club would be gaining a clinical player in the final third.