da heads bet： According to reports in The Mirror, Newcastle United and West Ham United are ready to go head-to-head in the race to sign Brentford winger Jota, who is rated at around £1.1m according to Transfermarkt.
What’s the word, then?
da pinnacle： Well, The Mirror says that the impressive Spaniard is attracting interest from the Premier League duo as he has just one year remaining on his contract at Griffin Park, with Magpies manager Rafa Benitez and Irons boss Slaven Bilic having different reasons to pursue the Championship star.
The Mirror says that Benitez feels that his squad is short in attacking areas with their top flight campaign just two days away while his Croatian counterpart sees the 26-year-old as a potential replacement for Manuel Lanzini should Liverpool target the West Ham star.
How did Jota do last season?
The Spaniard’s Brentford career looked to be over after he joined Eibar on an 18-month loan deal in January 2016 because of personal reasons, however they recalled him in January of this year and he went on to make a huge impact in the closing stages of the Championship campaign.
The 26-year-old scored 12 goals and provided a further five assists – mainly from the right wing – to show the ability that he does have in his locker.
Despite the speculation over his future, he also started the Bees’ opening day league defeat to Sheffield United last weekend.
Would he be a good signing for Newcastle?
He certainly would be, and probably more so for the Magpies.
While Newcastle have the likes of Matt Ritchie, Jacob Murphy in wide areas and Ayoze Perez through the middle, they don’t exactly have a plethora of creative options throughout the team.
Jota would certainly improve that when you look at his goals and assists record for Brentford last term, while he also created 29 chances for his teammates in those 21 league appearances.
Considering the Toon do have Ritchie, Murphy and Christian Atsu, Jota would probably be more likely to play through the middle or on the left-hand side if he did make the move to St James’ Park.
What about West Ham?
It’s difficult to say.
As we mentioned previously, The Mirror says that Jota would likely be seen as a replacement for Lanzini in the event that he leaves before the summer transfer window closes at the end of this month, but that seems unlikely right now.
Irons fans will certainly want to see the impressive Lanzini given a more free role, while Jota would find it difficult to compete with Michail Antonio on the right wing.