Eddie Howe commented on the future of Chelsea loanee Lewis Hall at Newcastle during his press conference on Friday with the Magpies boss stating that he cannot confirm if the defender would be at St James’ Park next season.
The left-back joined Newcastle on loan from Chelsea during the summer with an obligation to buy for £28m, with a further £7m in add-ons. The deal included performance-related criteria that needed to be met and, so far, Hall has only made six appearances.
If the criteria are not met, the Tyneside club will not have to buy the 19-year-old, and it is clear so far this season that the youngster is not a key part of Howe’s plans
Speaking about the Newcastle manager’s comments on Friday, Fabrizio Romano has said that the Premier League club do not want to share the criteria but he believes that it is not difficult to reach.
Writing in his latest exclusive CaughtOffside column, Romano states that Howe didn’t mean to speak about the situation negatively and that the future of Hall will become clearer with time.
The transfer journalist said: “I can say that Newcastle don’t want to share this precise criteria in public but sources guarantee it’s not super difficult to reach it. Let’s see in the next months what happens with Hall as the picture will become clearer with time. In my opinion, I don’t think Howe wanted to speak about this topic in a negative way; he just said the truth.”