Newcastle United midfielder Jack Colback could be offered an escape route out of St James’ Park by Championship promotion hopefuls Aston Villa.
As has been very clearly established, Aston Villa will not be throwing around the dough this month.
Thanks to the vice-like grip of Financial Fair Play, Steve Bruce will have to make do with bargain deals and short-term loans if he wants to inject his promotion-chasing squad with some fresh-blood.
A new striker is top of the to-do list with Jonathan Kodjia out for the foreseeable future and Scott Hogan, Keinan Davis and Gabby Agbonlahor failing to step up consistently in his continued absence. A left-back, and perhaps even a centre-half, would also be welcome in order to provide a little bit of depth to a rather thin-looking backline.
What Villa do not appear to need, however, is another central midfielder. But according to The Chronicle, that is exactly what Bruce is after. The report states that Villa are going head-to-head with Leeds United for the signature of Newcastle United’s out-of-favour forgotten man Jack Colback.
The Magpies are desperate to get the high-earner off their books as he has not played a single game all season, instead being shunted out to the reserves after he refused to leave Tyneside this summer.
But while Colback does have experience of what it takes to win the Championship, lifting the title with Newcastle last season, would he really offer anything Villa don’t have already? It is difficult to see how he would be an improvement on Mile Jedinak, Conor Hourihane, Henri Lansbury or even the under-fire Glenn Whelan.
As reported by The Daily Mail, Colback is on wages of £40,000-a-week at Villa. So can Bruce really afford, quite literally, to hand him a lifeline?
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