Journalist Ben Jacobs has claimed Newcastle United have a great opportunity to sign young defender Harrison Ashby with his contract set to expire.

What's the word?

The West Ham United right-back has been linked with a move to the Magpies for a little while now with The Guardian discussing a possible transfer back in December.

The player will see his contract finish at the end of the season and all the reporting in recent times has suggested that he will not sign a new deal.

With just a few days left in the current window, if the Irons want to get a transfer fee for their player, then they will have to sell soon.

With that in mind, while speaking about it all on NUFC Matters, Jacobs has claimed that there is now "a very realistic possibility" the deal gets done for Newcastle.

He said (27:08): "This is a player that Newcastle have tracked for quite some time. And I think there's a very realistic possibility that this one gets done.

"The West Ham perspective, when we last spoke a month ago, was pretty categorical that they see him as one of the top talents in that position.
"And they would have loved to keep him but the intimation from the 21-year-old – who's a right back for those that don't know – is that he doesn't want to re-sign.
"And therefore with his contract set to expire in the summer, there's a real opportunity for Newcastle to move.”

Good move?

Ashby hasn't played an awful lot of senior football. In fact, at 21 years of age, he has just seven first-team appearances for West Ham.

Still, seeing as he is already attracting interest from numerous Premier League clubs – with Leeds United also previously linked – he must be pretty highly rated by a number of different scouting departments.

With that being the case, if Newcastle could pick Ashby up on the cheap this winter, this could represent a great bit of business. After all, the club do look to be on the market for a young right-back with 18-year-old Ivan Fresneda also linked in recent times.

And while it's great news that Kieran Trippier at right-back has signed a new contract until the summer of 2025, the Englishman is 32 years old and so it would be wise to start planning for a future without him.