It seems that Newcastle may be having some second thoughts about going ahead with the loan deal with an obligation to buy for Chselsea’s Lewis Hall.

When Hall joined Newcastle United in late August it was reported to be on a season-long loan with an obligation to buy for £28M, plus £7M in add-ons.

The left-back, capped at all England levels from u16 through U21 – has not had much playing time even though first-choice left-back Dan Burn has been out for months.

It would seem there are some questions about his defensive qualities which is probably why Howe has not used the England U21 International much this season.

Eddie Howe was asked again about the status of Hall in his press conference today, and this is what he said:

“He’s settled in fine, he’s working well.”

“I just think we need to develop certain areas of his game. We’ve got no doubts about his qualities, what he can bring to the team, but he’s doing a lot of work behind the scenes.”

“We’re working with him daily and he was brought in with a view to the here and now obviously, to compete for places, but also the future.”

“From my part it would be just a little bit of patience with us. He’s got a big part to play.”

Sometimes it’s difficult to read between the lines with Eddie Howe, but it does seem that Howe and the coaching staff are working on some areas of Hall’s game (defensively) and he should become a better player because of it.

It could be that for the deal to go through he has certain playing obligations to meet – like a number of first-team appearances.

If we don’t see Hall playing in the second half of the season it could be that Newcastle do not want to do the deal.

We have Dan Burn, Tino Livramento, and Matt Targett (and even Kieran Trippier) who can play at left-back.

And the way Tino has shown he can play on either side at full-back and has looked so good in the first team this last couple of months could have swayed the powers that be at Newcastle.

We will have to wait and see, but if Hall doesn’t play much towards the end of the season the club may not want to do the deal for Hall.

And Newcastle will have £28M more to play with in next summer’s transfer window, which will be a really important window for us.

 Loading ...