Club now claims Newcastle United will not be 'able or willing' to pay for £84m defender in January

Newcastle United are on the hunt for a new centre-back option as an alternative to Fabian Schar on the right side of centre.

The Magpies wasted the summer transfer window chasing Marc Guehi only to come away empty-handed, and while the Crystal Palace man remains an option for Newcastle, the club are guarding themselves against making the same mistake again by widening their search.

Recently it was reported that Newcastle had their eye on 22-year-old Benfica defender Tomas Araujo who currently has a €100 million (£84 million) release clause in his contract.

The Portuguese defender has courted a lot of interest from other clubs but it appears that Benfica are confident of holding on to their young star in January at least.

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Benfica are confident they can hold on to Tomas Araujo in January

The January transfer window is notorious for being a difficult one in which to get big deals done as clubs are often reluctant to lose first-team players mid-campaign.

That appears to be the case for Araujo and Benfica with the Portuguese club telling O Jogo it would take an 'irrefutable' offer for them to consider selling the Newcastle target.

They even mention that they believe Newcastle would be 'not able and unwilling' to pay what it would take to make them consider a sale.

Newcastle could still make a cheeky bid in the new year

It makes sense that Benfica would have this confidence knowing that they have that safety net of such a high release clause, as no club is likely to pay €100 million for a 22-year-old defender.

By the sounds of it, even a bid of around half that figure wouldn't be enough to tempt Benfica into a sale in January.

The only way to find out is to try, though, and Newcastle may still consider a cheeky bid to test Benfica's resolve.