'Understand' - Craig Hope claims Newcastle could leave 'magic' £38.5k-p/w gem out in the cold

Newcastle United defenders Ciaran Clark and Jamal Lewis face being left out in the cold for the remainder of the Premier League season, according to The Daily Mail’s Craig Hope.

The Magpies face some difficult squad decisions after signing five players this month and only managing to clear out three on loan – Freddie Woodman, Jeff Hendrick and Matty Longstaff. They will now have to clear space for the new arrivals by omitting players from their original 25-man Premier League squad.

Clark and Lewis appear to have been pushed further down the pecking order at St James’ Park by the additions of centre-back Dan Burn and left-back Matt Targett respectively.

According to Hope, the two defenders were given the opportunity to leave Newcastle before the end of the transfer window but said no.

Firstly, the journalist tweeted: “Understand Ciaran Clark & Jamal Lewis have turned down moves away from NUFC despite not being in the 25-man squad to be submitted to Premier League”.

He later added a follow-up tweet which outlined: “Ciaran Clark turned down loan move to Middlesbrough & Jamal Lewis to Birmingham.”

Clark’s omission would probably be regarded as a bigger surprise given that he has played 13 top-flight games this season to Lewis’ five.

However, it’s striking how much the latter’s reputation has suffered at Newcastle. This was a player who Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool pursued before they moved on to Kostas Tsimikas in 2020.

Daniel Farke, Lewis’ former manager at Norwich City, said that the Northern Ireland international was capable of producing ‘magic’, but now it’s now hard to see a way back for him on Tyneside, and he may even end up having to move to the Championship in the summer.

Given that Newcastle are out of the FA Cup and