Newcastle United reportedly want to bring Joe Lolley to the Premier League with the winger shining in the Championship with Nottingham Forest.
The prospect of losing Joe Lolley in January simply doesn’t bare thinking about for Nottingham Forest fans.
The 26-year-old is in the form of his life right now and produced arguably the best display of his entire career on Wednesday night, following a 35 yard wonder-goal with four assists as 10-man Forest drew 5-5, yes five-five, away at Aston Villa.
But according to The Mail, Lolley is starting to attract attention from clubs in the Premier League with The Mirror (live blog, 4.42pm) reporting that Newcastle United are one of a number of clubs tracking a player Huddersfield Town sold just a few months ago.
Though the only way that Forest should ever consider letting the red-hot Lolley leave for St James’ Park is if they can get a player of similar quality in return. Matt Ritchie, for instance.
The Scotland international is perhaps the one attacker in Newcastle’s squad that would be capable of replicating Lolley’s creative output. Ritchie inspired The Magpies to the Championship title in 2017 with 12 goals and seven assists and, two seasons earlier, also scored 15 and assisted 17 more with Bournemouth in England’s second tier.
Rafa Benitez is a big fan of Ritchie but The Northern Echo claimed in July that the Spaniard was willing to sell him to fund a deal to bring Andros Townsend back to Tyneside.
So if Newcastle come calling for Lolley, Forest should not even consider a bid unless Ritchie is going in the other direction.
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