Crystal Palace hoping to sign Newcastle's "unsung hero" on a free transfer - The Telegraph
According to The Telegraph, Ciaran Clark is on Crystal Palace's radar and at risk of leaving the club on a free transfer at the end of the season.
The Ireland international’s contract is set to expire in the summer and Mike McGrath's piece believes that The Eagles could pursue the defender in a bid to replace the out of favour Mamadou Sakho.
Clark has played in all of our last nine games and has received praise from Steve Bruce in the past week, with the gaffer believing any praise calling the player as an "unsung hero" to be condescending as it doesn’t fairly reflect his importance to our side.
Crucially, however, Bruce signalled that contract talks were going to take place to tie the centre-back down to a new deal, with the NUFC boss revealing his desire to keep Clark at the club.
Rafa Benitez brought Clark in ahead of our Championship campaign in 2016 and the former Villa man has rarely let us down since he signed on the dotted line four and a half years ago.
At 31, he is a seasoned pro he is well equipped to the rigours of the Premier League. He chips in with his fair share of goals for a centre half and has bagged an impressive 11 goals in a black-and-white shirt.
Charnley should move to extend his stay at the club, as the cost of replacing someone of his ilk would be expensive and an unnecessary risk.
A fan favourite, dependable and clearly well-settled member of the first team setup never be allowed to run his contract down to the final six months.
A decision on Clark’s future could be the biggest no brainer that the Toon hierarchy have to make in this window.
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