Southampton and Watford battle for £2.5m rate attacker

June 8, 2024 Adam Scully Bournemouth, Championship News, EFL, EFL Championship, Newcastle United, News, Notts County, Portsmouth, Premier League, Swindon Town, Transfer News, Watford

Watford are keen to sign Matt Ritchie on a permanent basis this summer after the Scotland international was released from his contract at Newcastle United.

This is according to TeamTalk, who are reporting that newly-appointed head coach Tom Cleverley is a “big admirer” of Ritchie and is keen to add the experienced winger to his squad ahead of next season. However, the outlet are claiming that Watford face stiff competition from a number of clubs in the Championship for his signature.

At the age of 34, Ritchie has played in all of the top four divisions of English football and has earned promotion four times in his career: at Notts County, Swindon Town, Bournemouth and, most recently, Newcastle United under Rafael Benitez back in 2017.

However, his game-time at St. James’ Park has greatly diminished over the past few seasons. The versatile Scot featured in merely 27 games for the Magpies since the start of the 2022/23 campaign and despite playing 17 times this season, has now left the club after an eight-year stint.

Ritchie has been linked with Portsmouth over the past few weeks, the club he started out at and also where he made his debut back in 2010 when Pompey were in the Premier League. Nevertheless, reports have suggested that the veteran would need to take a massive wage cut to move to Fratton Park this summer.

Ritchie is a player with a plethora of experience in England’s top tier, having played for Bournemouth and Newcastle United in the competition. As a result, Cleverley will be keen to sign the player permanently to add a player with this nous to the first-team squad.

Nevertheless, the wide-man was said to be earning £45,000 per week at Newcastle, which is something that Watford or Portsmouth certainly won’t be able to offer him this hefty wage package so he will need to take a pay cut in his next move.