Rolando can follow in Grant’s footsteps

HUDDERSFIELD Town remain firmly in the hunt for winger Rolando Aarons.

The Newcastle United player is out of the picture on Tyneside and Town are hopeful of luring him to West Yorkshire during the January transfer window.

They tried to get a move done in October but the switch fell through on deadline day.

With Aarons starved of football – he hasn’t played since before the original lockdown last March – he will surely be eager to get his career back on track.

If he does arrive at Town then he will, of course, have the obligatory choice of which squad number to go for.

Most players are after a first XI number but the only one currently available is No.9 – more fitting to a striker than a winger.

Aarons has had a mixed bag in terms of squad numbers in the past.

At Newcastle he has not even been given a squad number, although he has previously worn 16.

That is free at present at the Terriers after Karlan Grant’s transfer to West Brom earlier this season. Would Aarons fancy the chance to pick up where Grant left off?

Aarons wore No. 26 when he was at Wycombe, 17 at Motherwell and 39 at Sheffield Wednesday in respective loan spells over the past few seasons.

Newcastle boss Steve Bruce needs to create space in his squad and raise funds in the transfer window, with four players picking up senior wages despite not even being included in the Premier League team squad.

Aarons is one, but Henri Saivet, Christian Atsu and Achraf Lazaar are costing the club a six-figure sum every week despite all having been exiled from the first team.

Town have already brought in one player this month. Danny Grant arrived from Bohemians at the start of the window.

The Irish forward was handed number 21.

Squad numbers available to new Town signings: 9, 13, 15, 16, 20, 24, 29, 30, 32, 33, 36-43, 45 onwards.