24-year-old released by Magpies this summer has found himself a new club already

Newcastle United announced several departures before they put out their full retained list.

Loris Karius, Matt Ritchie, Paul Dummett and Jeff Hendrick were all announced as players that will leave the club when their contracts expire along with academy graduate Kell Watts who had flirted with the first team on a few occasions but never fully made the breakthrough.

Watts made just one senior appearance for Newcastle, a 16 minute cameo against Liverpool in the Premier League back in 2020.

In his six years as a professional at the club, Watts has been sent out to five different clubs over six separate spells with Wigan Athletic being the club that took him twice in 2021-22 and 2023-24.

Watts has signed for League One side Cambridge United

It hasn't taken long for the centre-back to find himself a new club after being released by Newcastle, however, with Cambridge United today announcing his arrival at The Abbey Stadium

After so many loan spells Watts, is now looking forward to being part of a first-team setup as a permanent signing.

"It's the perfect opportunity for me to be somewhere permanent and stamp my authority."

Kell's impressive pre-season performances were never enough

Kell Watts had a few spells where it looked like he was going to make his breakthrough for Newcastle after some impressive displays in pre-season friendlies, but then would ultimately end up going out on loan rather than being given a shot at his boyhood club.

We're glad he's managed to bounce straight up and find himself a club, even if he has had to step down to League One. He has shown many times while on loan that he can compete at that level, but we hope we see him make the step up to the Championship at least at some point.

Good luck to Kell, and we hope it all goes well at Cambridge.