Florian Thauvin’s Premier League career yielded three starts across six months. Luckily for Newcastle, his form in France means they are due a windfall.
Newcastle United could be about to recoup much of the £13 million they splurged on French flop Florian Thauvin, according to the Chronicle.
The highly-rated winger arrived at St James’ Park from Marseille in the summer of 2015 and elicited huge excitement among a fanbase hoping Thauvin’s talent would match up to the club’s skilful French widemen of yesteryear, from David Ginola (below) to Laurent Robert to Hatem Ben Arfa.
However, like countryman Remy Cabella who, ironically, Thauvin replaced at Newcastle, the former France Under-21 international returned to Ligue 1 soon after, re-joining Marseille on loan six months after signing before penning a season-long deal this summer.
The former Lille youngster’s lack of physicality meant he struggled to settle in the Premier League, not helped by then-Newcastle boss Steve McClaren’s (below) decision to play him on the left-flank, restricting his trademark tendency to cut inside onto his favoured foot.
However, the Championship pace-setters could be about to receive a reported 11.5 million euros from Marseille to make the deal permanent, with the French giants impressed by Thauvin’s form since his return.
Indeed, his tally of six goals in 14 games in all compeitions provides some insight as to why Newcastle were so keen to splash such a huge sum on him in the first place.
Rafa Benitez has embarked on something of a fat-trimming venture since taking the reigns towards the end of last season, selling off a vast number of the club’s underperforming assets with Thauvin expected to follow in the footsteps of Cabella, Henri Saivet, Papiss Cisse and Emmanuel Riviere.
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