Newcastle United have agreed to let Aleksander Mitrovic join EFL Championship club, Fulham on loan for the remainder of the season after rejecting a staggering 22 loan offers from different clubs over the January transfer window. This is an absurd amount for a player whose last contribution came in November with a goal against West Ham United.
Mitrovic has quite surely fallen out of favour under Rafael Benitez and has racked up just 257 minutes of game time this season. Disappointing to say the least, for a striker with a £13m price tag.
A product of the FK Partizan youth setup having passed the ranks with flying colours, Mitrovic made himself known among Europe with a 44 goal tally in 93 appearances for Belgian side, RSC Anderlecht. He helped the side win their 33rd title in his debut season and was deemed to be the next big thing in European football.
Of course, Premier League sides came sniffing around and Newcastle United emerged with the best offer for the young striker giving him the number nine role in the starting XI. He arrived at St. James Park for a fee of £13m and expressed his eagerness to replicate the performances of club legend, Alan Shearer.
At the time it looked all was set for the future and the fans could rest easy with an ambitious and effective goal scorer up top, but things did not quite turn out that way. Mitrovic has a very mediocre first season in the Premier League with just 9 goals in 36 games and saw the club get relegated to the Championship.
He was given a fair amount of chances in his second season as well but failed to uphold the standards of Benitez and was dropped down the pecking order behind the likes of Dwight Gayle.
Fulham are on a terrific run of form in the second division of English football having won 4 of their last 5 league games. They completely demolished relegation-threatened Burton Albion earlier this month 6 goals to nil. They are coming off an impressive 1-3 win over Barnsley last Saturday at Oakwell and are currently staged at the 6th spot of the EFL Championship.
Slavisa Jokanovic now has the option of Mitrovic as a second option behind the likes of Tom Bradshaw and Kieffer Moore. The dual strike partnership has worked but Mitrovic’s services will come handy in the playoff battle towards the end of the season in order to win promotion to the Premier League.
