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A year ago Newcastle United paid Stuttgart £69m for Nick Woltemade, the biggest fee in the club's history. Tonight he is on his way to Turin on loan for £3.5m, with no option for Juventus to keep him.
The deal is agreed and Woltemade is expected to complete a medical before the deadline. It runs for the season. There is no obligation to buy, no option to buy, nothing beyond a temporary move and a small fee.
Three games, one start
Matthias Jaissle has taken charge of three matches at Newcastle so far. Woltemade has started one of them.
He was on the bench again at Tottenham on Saturday, came on, and set up Yoane Wissa for the second in a 2-0 win. Useful, but it is the kind of contribution a £69m striker makes when he has slipped down the order rather than up it.
Why Juventus picked him over Zirkzee
Juventus needed a forward because Jonathan David is heading to Atletico Madrid on loan. Their first move was for Joshua Zirkzee, whose proposed switch from Manchester United to Fiorentina had collapsed.
Two things killed it. Manchester United wanted an obligation to buy written into any loan, and Zirkzee was more expensive. Woltemade costs Juventus £3.5m and commits them to nothing beyond June.
For a club that has spent the past few years trying to unpick expensive contracts, that is the entire appeal.
Newcastle needed the space first
This was always going to depend on Newcastle getting a replacement through the door. Matias Fernandez-Pardo flew into Tyneside on Monday evening to finalise a move from Lille worth up to £55m, and once that was under control Woltemade's exit became possible.
What it means for the German is harder to read. He is 24, he has a World Cup year behind him, and a season of regular football in Serie A is a better outcome than another eight months of coming off the bench on Tyneside.
What it means for Newcastle is simpler and less comfortable. They spent a club record on a striker, changed manager, and have now loaned him out for roughly five per cent of what he cost. If he scores 15 in Italy, that conversation gets loud in May.
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