Newcastle have made a move to sign Harrison Ashby from the Hammers ahead of the transfer deadline, according to Sky Sports’ Keith Downie.
The journalist claims that Eddie Howe is keen to sign a new defender before the deadline after losing Emil Krafth to a serious ACL injury. 
As a result, they are reported to have opened talks with the Irons over a deal to sign Ashby on a permanent deal.
The Scotland U21 international only has one year remaining on his contract at the London Stadium and Downie reports that Howe wants to bring the right-back into his first-team instead of placing him with the U23s.
Ashby has struggled for minutes at West Ham, and has only made six senior appearances for the first-team.
It remains to be seen if David Moyes would be willing to countenance losing a squad player this close to the deadline, however, with little chance of sourcing a replacement.
I cannot understand why we would sell Ashby as he could be our right back for years to come, so Moyes should be bringing him through now. He is one of uur brightest prospects and there is no way he should be going anywhere other than the first team. Clearly Newcastle see his value and plan to fast track him. I would be bitterly disappointed to see him leave, and even more so if it is for a “nominal fee”.
If we sell Ashby to Newcastle to be ‘in their team squad not U23s’ that will just sum up the woeful misuse of our talented young players. This lad has barely had a sniff of team action yet a young manager like Eddie Howe can see his quality and potential. We have virtually thrown away our gold mine of talent IMHO. Such a shame.
I would like to hope that this rumour rating is very low to non-existent because it doesn’t make much sense to me.
But most of the current reports regarding this move are both strong and persistent right now.
How can it be that Newcastle would be prepared to play Ashby when Moysey obviously thinks he isn’t ready / good enough?