Tony Cascarino shared that Newcastle United were clearly trying to protect their asset by getting defender Jamaal Lascelles to pen a new six-year deal with the club.
The Magpies provided an update via their official website on their 24-year-old centre-back in order to reveal that he had put pen to paper on a new long-term deal with the club.
Cascarino, who is regularly seen on Sky Sports Today programme, shared that obviously teams had come in for the defender thinking they could lure him away from St James Park and the Magpies had acted accordingly.
“Well sounds like the vultures are sniffing around, other clubs have been looking at him over the last 18 months, he had a great season last year, not so good this year as the team are having a poor one generally,” said the Sky pundit on talkSPORT (Thursday November 1, 9:50am).
“But obviously clubs have come in for him, looked at him and probably feel they can take him away from Newcastle so the club are trying to protect an asset to them, and they haven’t got that many have they.”
OPINION
Lascelles being tied down to a lengthy contract is wonderful news but you can’t help but still worry. Sometimes when a player is given a contract with a notable length it’s because the club are just ensuring they can demand as much money as possible if someones wants to buy him. However hopefully this isn’t the case and Lascelles committing his future is indeed a sign that Magpies supporters can expect to see him at the club for the foreseeable future. It’s quite amusing that the news of the defender’s new deal broke a day after the Chronicle reported that both Chelsea and Tottenham were circling. It certainly makes Cascarino’s verdict on the Magpies’ latest action seem correct as the vultures he is indirectly describing could easily be the two London clubs recently linked to him. However given that the Magpies now have Lascelles on a long-term deal and due to the fact that the centre-back has always appeared loyal to the cause, then it’s likely the Premier League duo will look elsewhere.
