Newcastle United have a central defender on their shopping list and while FFP constraints are still a worry, it hasn't stopped them from reaching out to a £70million rated target.
This is according to Football Insider who claim that Arsenal and Newcastle have made contact with the family of Ousmane Diomande about a switch to the Premier League,
The report does say, however, that both Arsenal and Newcastle are looking to complete the move in the summer rather than January as both clubs are stifled by Profit and Sustainability rules.
Diomande has a £70million release clause in his contract with Sporting and both Newcastle and Arsenal are reportedly ready to activate it. There is also interest from Chelsea but they are yet to make contact with the player.
Newcastle have previously been linked to Diomande as the 20-year-old Ivorian continues to impress for Sporting.
While Newcastle are looking for another talented, young defender to work alongside Sven Botman long-term, they are prepared to wait this one out and will likely make a move in the loan market to fill the gap for the rest of this season.
The big issue will be convincing Diomande that he would be best served joining up-and-coming Newcastle ahead of title-chasing Arsenal or free-spending Chelsea.
If Newcastle can recover their form for the second half of the season and finish strong, maybe sneaking into a Europa League spot, then that task could be a bit easier.
It's all well and good dreaming about £70million defenders for the summer but we have much more pressing matters to attend to.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
21 | 30 | 50 |
2 |
Arsenal
|
22 | 22 | 44 |
3 |
Nottingham Forest
|
22 | 11 | 44 |
4 |
Chelsea
|
22 | 17 | 40 |
5 |
Manchester City
|
22 | 15 | 38 |
6 |
Newcastle United
|
22 | 12 | 38 |
7 |
Bournemouth
|
22 | 10 | 37 |
8 |
Aston Villa
|
22 | -1 | 36 |
9 |
Brighton
|
22 | 5 | 34 |
10 |
Fulham
|
22 | 4 | 33 |
11 |
Brentford
|
22 | 1 | 28 |
12 |
Crystal Palace
|
22 | -3 | 27 |
13 |
Manchester United
|
22 | -5 | 26 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
22 | -16 | 26 |
15 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
22 | 10 | 24 |
16 |
Everton
|
21 | -10 | 20 |
17 |
Wolves
|
22 | -19 | 16 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
22 | -23 | 16 |
19 |
Leicester
|
22 | -25 | 14 |
20 |
Southampton
|
22 | -35 | 6 |