‘He Certainly Intends’ – Sporting Director Clear On Newcastle United Loan Star’s Future | OneFootball

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Sevilla sporting director Antonio Cordon has expressed his team’s desire to keep hold of Newcastle United loanee Odysseas Vlachodimos and feels the goalkeeper ‘certainly intends to stay’.

Newcastle’s most expensive goalkeeping acquisition for £20m is currently on loan in Spain after failing to break into the team at St James’ Park.

His performances in a Sevilla shirt, though, have helped him earn the respect of the club’s fans and there is real appetite for him to remain with Los Rojiblancos.

Vlachodimos has been one of the first names on the teamsheet for Sevilla manager Matias Almeyda, who is keen on extending his association with the Greek international.

Sevilla have started to explore options to keep Vlachodimos beyond the end of his loan spell in June.

The club’s sporting director Cordon has now admitted that the club would like to keep the shot-stopper and believes that the feeling goes both ways.

“We’d like to keep him”, Cordon told DAZN (via Marca).

“We’ll see, he’s very happy in the city.

“It’s a city that’s important for every player who comes here.

“Nobody wants to leave and he certainly intends to stay.”

Cordon however is clear that there are obstacles to overcome when it comes to keeping hold of Vlachodimos.

“We know his club knows he’s doing very well.

“There are big clubs in Europe that are also following him and well, we have to wait.”

Vlachodimos’s departure from Newcastle was part of their attempt to trim down the overall size of the goalkeeping department at St James’s Park.

Newcastle were even ready to pay a ‘significant portion’ of the goalkeeper’s ‘juicy salary’ to augment his departure from the club.

As such, it looks unlikely that Vlachodimos will have a long-term future at the Tyneside club once he returns after the current stint, with Aaron Ramsdale and Nick Pope firmly ahead of him in the pecking order.

For Newcastle, if the Greek is to depart then the emphasis will be on recouping the most amount of money from his departure possible.