Newcastle United Opinion: Magpies could strike gold with the signing of Jetro Willems
According to reports from Football Italia, Premier League outfit Newcastle United and Serie A high-flyers AS Roma are interested in securing the services of Dutch international left-back Jetro Willems, as revealed by the player himself.
Willems, who currently plies his trade in the Bundesliga with Eintracht Frankfurt, still has two years remaining on his current but Football Italia understands that the 25-year-old is unhappy with his bit-part role in the first-team.
Willems became the youngest player in the history of the European Championship when he started for the Netherlands in 2012 as an 18-year-old. The left-back hit great heights with then Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven and carved out a reputation for himself as one of the brightest emerging prospects in European football.
The flying Dutchman went on to have a wonderful time at Eindhoven and enjoyed a trophy-laden spell in the Eredivisie before earning a €5 million move to Bundesliga outfit Frankfurt in the summer of 2017.
The 25-year-old made a mammoth 192 appearances for Eindhoven in all competitions, registering 12 goals and 34 assists in the process.
However, his time at Frankfurt hasn’t been a fruitful one and the youngster’s stocks have declined quite a bit over the past couple of years due to lack of regular playtime.
He made as many as 19 starts in the Bundesliga in his first season at the club and earned plaudits for his consistent performances but Willems started on only 7 occasions in the league this time around.
The Dutchman still managed to end the season with 35 appearances in all competitions, more than half of them being from the bench, and the lack of importance clearly hasn’t gone down well with him. A player of his calibre deserves to play regularly at the highest level, and quite understandably, he has left the door open to a move in the summer.
To put things into perspective, Newcastle United would do themselves a world of good by striking a deal for the talented 25-year-old left-back this summer in a bid to put a full-stop to their left-side conundrum.
Willems is a top-quality player and the Magpies could possibly have a gem on their hands if he lived up to his potential at St. James’ Park.
A modern-day,offensive-minded, flying full-back noted for his lightning pace, incredible upper body strength, drive, determination and high levels of stamina, Willems combines his acceleration with his trickery to rip the opposition apart, while also boasting of excellent crossing and passing attributes.
Willems is more than capable of playing as an out-and-out winger, although he is pretty sound defensively. An aggressive defender by nature, Willems is very strong on the tackle and is always ready to stick his foot out to break up the play and cut out the attacks.
He does tend to deal with the transitions in play at occasions but his pace comes to his rescue more often than not. To sum it up, his assets as a left-back certainly outweigh his liabilities and Newcastle have every reason to look at him as an exciting addition to their ranks this summer.
Rafael Benitez used Matt Ritchie in an unfamiliar left wing-back role this season and the former Bournemouth man finished the season with as many as 8 assists, being the club’s most creative player. However, Newcastle should look to use him as an out-and-out attacker to get the best out of him and someone like Willems can allow Benitez to sort out his left-side woes.
Antonio Barreca is unlikely to stay at Tyneside permanently after making just a solitary appearance in the Premier League, and while Paul Dummett is a very sound defender, his lack of attacking prowess is something that makes him a liability further up the pitch.
There are question marks over the futures over several first-team players at Newcastle, with the likes of Issac Hayden, Mo Diame, Jonjo Shelvey and Ayoze Perez all linked with moves elsewhere.
They also have a decision to make on the future of West Brom loanee Salomon Rondon, while winger Jacob Murphy is unlikely to be in the manager’s plans following a poor loan spell in the Championship. Manager Rafael Benitez also faces an uncertain future at the club, which pretty much sums up their tumultuous situation.
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All in all, Jetro Willems continues to be an immensely-talented player and the Magpies could possibly strike gold by beating off competition from the Serie A in their bid to bring the Dutchman to the north-east.
