Newcastle United may not have had the summer they intended.
The Magpies thought they were going to be bankrolled by a billionaire group fronted by Amanda Staveley but the takeover fell through at the last minute.
It meant that Steve Bruce and the club’s fans were forced to rely on the somewhat limited generosity of owner Mike Ashley.
Nevertheless, they enjoyed an active summer, bringing in a number of new players to strengthen Bruce’s squad.
Both Callum Wilson and Jamal Lewis arrived on permanent transfers from Bournemouth and Norwich City respectively, while Mark Gillespie, Jeff Hendrick, and Ryan Fraser came in on free transfers.
They did let a few loanees go, though, with Danny Rose, Nabil Bentaleb, Jetro Willems, and Valentino Lazaro allowed to move back to their parent clubs.
It is not clear if the Magpies wanted to keep any of the quartet but Lazaro was clearly available; he has moved to Borussia Monchengladbach on another loan spell after his initial stay at St James’ Park.
Owned by Inter Milan, the versatile star, who can play on the wing and in defence, made a total of 13 Premier League appearances for the Magpies.
And he has now explained exactly why he made the move in the first place.
Speaking to Kicker, as transcribed by Sport Witness, he said: “The outlook for the Euros played an important role, hence the decision to let Inter loan me so that I could play regularly.
“In this context, contacts were made with clubs in Germany. In the end, my gut feeling told me to try the Premier League.”
GIVEMESPORT’S Harry Sherlock says…
Lazaro was a decent servant to Newcastle when he was at the club.
It feels remarkable that he was allowed to leave given his form; in his 13 games, he also scored twice.
This is a versatile player with youth on his side; he’s only 24, and he could have filled in a number of positions for Bruce.
Add into that the fact that he is valued at just £13.5m by Transfermarkt and this could have been a rather cheap deal for Ashley to do.
It seems, though, that he didn’t even try.