Newcastle eyeing one of the 'best young defenders in France' - could cost £25m

Newcastle United may have found a much cheaper alternative to Marc Guehi as they look for new squad additions.

After missing out on their primary target in the summer despite offering a reported £70 million to Crystal Palace for England defender Marc Guehi, Newcastle are reassessing their options.

There's still believed to be interest in Guehi and there's a chance that Newcastle could test the waters in January to see if there's a deal to be done, but with a new defender falling down the priority list with the expected return to fitness of both Jamaal Lascelles and Sven Botman, forking out £70 million on a centre-back is perhaps no longer on the agenda.

It's unlikely that the pursuit of further options in defence will end entirely and a new report has suggested that the Magpies have their eye on a much cheaper alternative to Guehi.

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Newcastle are among many clubs looking at Abdukodir Khusanov

The Boot Room claim that Newcastle are now eyeing 20-year-old Abdukodir Khusanov from RC Lens. They claim that he is viewed as one of the best young defenders in France and given that Newcastle have been joined by Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Crystal Palace, Brentford, Brighton and West Ham United in their interest of Khusanov as well as teams from Europe including Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig, Napoli, Atalanta and Marseille then it's safe to say he certainly has a good reputation.

Khusanov's stats dwarf those of both Sven Botman and Fabian Schar with the 20-year-old averaging 2.09 tackles per 90 minutes compared to Botman's 1.35 and Schar's 1.29. Khusanov is also miles ahead of the Newcastle duo on interceptions, blocks and clearances.

It's obviously worth remembering that Khusanov is playing in Ligue 1 compared to our lads playing in the Premier League, but given he is so much younger, we can only expect him to get better.

Price may not be the issue for Newcastle

Khusanov is valued at around £25 million which shouldn't be beyond the reach of Newcastle in January, depending on how much they splash on a right winger which remains the priority position to improve.

Looking at that long list of other clubs who are monitoring the Uzbekistan international, price won't be our biggest issue, it will be convincing him to join Newcastle over all our competitors.

We're excited by the prospect of this one, but we aren't getting too carried away just yet as the origins of the story (via Sport Witness) look questionable at best, but with stats like his, we'd be amazed if Newcastle aren't looking at this kid.