New report names several players tracked by Newcastle United last summer who still remain targets a year later including Marc Guehi

The long protracted transfer saga involving Newcastle United's pursuit of Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi went on all summer long last year and was exhausting and infuriating in equal measure.

A large chunk of Newcastle fans weren't sold on Marc Guehi in the first place, but the longer the saga went on and the higher the alleged bid figures rose, the greater the decline in interest in the England centre back dipped among fans.

Newcastle are still in need of another central defender, with Fabian Schar as the only fit and ready right-sided centre-back available to Eddie Howe these days. Emil Krafth can fill in at a push, but he's a right-back by trade.

Along with a right-sided forward, a centre-back is a high priority for Paul Mitchell and Eddie Howe this summer.

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Paul Mitchell still has some old favourites in his sights for the summer

Mitchell's staff have been out scouring the globe (or flat earth depending on your mental stability), in a bid to find the best players they could potentially bring in this summer.

However, The Athletic makes a note of mentioning a few names that will be familiar to Newcastle fans from the last 12 months.

"Interest in Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi, who Newcastle pursued last year, has not disappeared, while Bournemouth’s Illia Zabarnyi has admirers within St James’ Park. Multiple European-based defenders have also been tracked, including Sporting CP’s Ousmane Diomande and Benfica’s Antonio Silva. Interestingly, heading into January, Mitchell put significant background work into attempting to line up a summer deal for Abdukodir Khusanov, who instead joined Manchester City."

We'd rather not even bother trying to land Marc Guehi this summer

It seems that the Magpies could return to Palace to try again for Marc Guehi this summer, although we expect we'll be walking away at the first sight of any silliness from Steve Parish this time.

Ousmane Diomande remains a decent option, albeit one with no Premier League experience, but if we can bag him early in the window then we're sure Eddie Howe could get him up to speed in time for the new season.

Iillia Zabarnyi has been excellent for Bournemouth this season alongside another Newcastle target, Dean Huijsen. We'd take any of those three over Marc Guehi now. We're so over the Guehi thing. Like, oh my god!