Newcastle look to reignite interest in Bundesliga left-back

Louis Hobbs
Jetro Willems: Liverpool link

Jetro Willems: Liverpool link

Dutch left-back Jetro Williems has confirmed his plan to leave Eintracht Frankfurt, revealing Newcastle United as one of the club’s interested in obtaining his signature. 

The 25-year-old has previously been linked with a move to Tyneside, with The Chronicle reporting that the club’s chief scout Graham Carr has been scouting Williems since his time at PSV Eindhoven.

In an interview with VTBL, Williems admitted his desire to venture beyond Germany, stating that he has interest from AS Roma and Newcastle, which would further back up a potential move to Rafa Benitez’s club.

Willems, who started for Holland at Euro 2012 when he was just 18-years-old, blossomed into one of Europe’s most promising young left-backs during his time at PSV. He provided 16 assists as Phillip Cocu’s team won the Eredivisie title back in 2015.

Unfortunately, a consistent run in the first-team has been hard to come by in Frankfurt. Since, Adi Hutter decided to switch to a three-man backline, with Filip Kostic taking over Williems’ duties in a more advanced, wing-back role.

Williems still managed to feature 36 times for Frankfurt, however the majority of his appearances came from central midfield. As, Hutter attempted to retrain the Dutchman as a box-to-box midfielder, which evidently was a failed experiment.

Meanwhile, Newcastle are in dire need for an orthodox left-sided full-back, with Antonio Barreca failing to make an impact during his loan spell from Monaco.

Frankfurt paid just £4.5million for the dutch left-back in the summer of 2017, therefore he could be available at a cut-price this summer, if Hutter is willing to let him go.

Ultimately, if Williems can show the sheer pace, strength, and attacking nature, shown during his time at PSV, he will be very well-suited to the left wing-back role in Benitez’s system.