Newcastle United's English head coach Eddie Howe returns
Newcastle United have completed their first transfer of the summer and are now £20million richer after Lloyd Kelly's exit was confirmed.
The move for the former AFC Bournemouth was rubber-stamped on Sunday after Juventus beat Udinese 2-0 in Turin to book their place in Europe with the Europa Conference League the worst possible scenario for the ex-Italian champions. Getting into one of the UEFA competitions was one of the conditions for Kelly's transfer to be completed this summer after what has been deemed a successful loan deal, with his temporary exit also banking Newcastle a £3m loan fee to add to the final sale price.
Kelly only arrived back in July on a free transfer from AFC Bournemouth, but his exit shaves off £7.8m a year from Eddie Howe's wage budget. Howe did not want to part with former Bristol City defender Kelly and said last winter: "I don't think it was necessarily my decision to let him leave, I think it was very reluctant from our side because Lloyd's a player that had just recently signed and we believed in him and his qualities."
The 25-year-old has recovered from a hamstring injury picked up two weeks ago and played the full 90 minutes against Udinese at centre-half. Kelly finds himself in a similar position to the club he has just left, going into Sunday's game over Venezia.
Juve sit in fourth place ahead of their final game of the season at the Allianz Stadium. Victory will book their place in the Champions League on Sunday - just like Newcastle as they prepare to take on Everton!
The transfer represents great business from a United point of view given they did not pay a penny for Kelly. He was not a regular at St James' Park and ended up making only four Premier League starts for Newcastle.
His exit also means that Newcastle's wage bill has cleared off £150,000 per week to bolster the kitty going into the summer window.