Newcastle United, Sunderland and Aston Villa look set to do battle for Tottenham Hotspur's Andros Townsend with the England winger likely to be available for transfer this summer. The 23-year-old made just 17 Premier League appearances last season, scoring twice, and could be available for a fee in the region of £10-12 million during this window. Reports in The Sun (paywall) and The Chronicle claim that new Magpies boss Steve McClaren is interested in bringing the winger to St James' Park, while their North-East rivals Sunderland, as well as Villa, are also targeting the nine-cap England international. A sometimes frustrating figure, Townsend loves to play on the right-hand side of a front three, then cut inside and get a shot away on this left foot. He could certainly add pace to a Newcastle side which is severely lacking in such a department, but the fact he has struggled for regular first-team football over the past few seasons does remain a slight concern. Although Townsend has been at Spurs since progressing to the first-team from their youth set-up in 2008, he has made just 86 appearances for the club (47 of them in the Premier League), scoring on 10 occasions. During that time, Townsend has been loaned out an incredible nine times, to the likes of Yeovil Town, Leyton Orient, Milton Keynes Dons, Leeds United, Birmingham City and Queens Park Rangers. In total throughout his career Townsend has made 196 appearances, scoring 21 goals. For all the latest NUFC News, Views and Transfers make sure to follow whatculture.com/NUFC on Twitter and Facebook.
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
