Newcastle United have offered midfielder Henri Saivet to French clubs in a bid to get him off their books this summer, according to the Chronicle.
The newspaper claim the Magpies took the proactive action regarding the 27-year-old as without his £35,000-a-week salary to pay, there would be more room in the club’s wage budget for Rafa Benitez to make the most of.
The Chronicle state that if Saivet was to remain on his current wages then he would be the highest paid player at the majority of Ligue 1 sides if a French club took up the option to sign him.
Turkish outlet Olay previously reported that Super Lig side Bursaspor were accelerating their efforts to sign the midfielder on loan, with the Chronicle’s report also revealed that fellow Turkish side Sivasspor would like to loan him too.
OPINION
The Magpies need to get Saivet off their books as quickly as possible because after making only eight appearances for the club, he is clearly not a player that will break into the first-team anytime soon. The Chronicle claim that the Magpies are looking to permanently wave goodbye to the midfielder yet it seems they face a hard task getting him off their books. It seems to be down to their own mistakes though as the 27-year-old should never have been handed such a long contract with a substantial wage. In fact the midfielder’s contract still has ages to run on it with it not expiring until 2021, so clearly someone messed up when they signed that deal. While it’s nice that the Magpies have proactively decided to offer the midfielder’s services around instead of waiting for offers to come in, it doesn’t sound like they’re about to have any takers on their offer. This means the best case scenario is to sanction another loan exit and hope the majority of his wage gets covered. Hopefully Sivasspor, who are interested and had him on loan in the second half of the most recent season, are keen to stump up some cash.
