Fabrizio Romano makes bizarre January transfer claim suggesting NUFC will target Chelsea man

We expect Newcastle United will be busy in the transfer market in January in a bid to add some much-needed depth in certain areas of the squad.

After failing to make any big, meaningful additions in the summer, the Magpies rolled out the excuse machine citing the boardroom upheaval and Paul Mitchell's late arrival as reasons the transfer business was underwhelming.

In January there'll always be the excuse of it being a tricky window in which to operate, but that excuse won't wash if there's no genuine attempts made to strengthen the squad.

A right-winger is practically essential as is more depth in central defence and up front, but one area that doesn't need so much attention is midfield.

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Newcastle really don't need another central midfielder right now

That's why the latest coming from transfer expert Fabrizio Romano suggesting that Newcastle are one of many clubs looking to rescue Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from his Chelsea hell seems a bit weird.

Newcastle have Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali, Joelinton, Lewis Miley, Sean Longstaff and Joe Willock fighting over places in the midfield, and with all due respect to Dewsbury-Hall, we doubt he'd have much luck ousting any of those. You could argue he's better than Sean Longstaff, and in many ways, that's true, but Longy is the unsung hero at Newcastle, and Eddie Howe knows it.

Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa, Fulham, Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford are all said to be interested in Dewsbury-Hall too which means the former Leicester City man won't be short of options.

Dewsbury-Hall was part of the Chelsea side Newcastle beat in the Carabao Cup

The Chelsea man has played just 43 minutes in the Premier League this season but he did play 57 minutes in the Carabao Cup defeat to Newcastle.

Competition for places in Chelsea's squad is insane so we're not surprised that Dewsbury-Hall is struggling for game time, but I don't see it falling to Newcastle to rescue him.

We have much more pressing priorities and unless Eddie Howe believes he can convert the 26-year-old into a right winger, we'll just leave this one well alone.