There's a definite focus on finding young players with first-team potential for Newcastle United as the Magpies look to build up an army of youngsters who will one day represent the club at the top level.
Now Spanish journalist Moisés Llorens has said (h/t Sport Witness) that Newcastle and Manchester United have Barcelona academy product Marc Bernal in their sights.
The defensive midfielder has broken into Hansi Flick's first team this season making three appearances.
The door is currently wide open for the Premier League sides to make their move with Bernal's current contract situation.
Bernal's current Barcelona deal expires in 2026 and is also said to contain a €20 million (£16.5 million) release clause which could be very tempting for Newcastle and Man United.
That being said, Barcelona are very keen to keep hold of the youngster and Moises Llorens has said 'he's staying' at Barca.
Newcastle or Man United could trigger the release clause but they'd still need to convince the player to leave, and that's unlikely to happen at this stage.
The other big wrinkle is that Bernal is currently out of action and is set to miss a large portion of this season after picking up a serious knee injury.
That will rule out any move in January for sure, and it's still debatable if either club would risk making a move in the summer with him likely to have missed so much football.
Barcelona meanwhile are looking to offer the Spain U21 a new deal.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
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23 | 35 | 56 |
2 |
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24 | 27 | 50 |
3 |
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24 | 13 | 47 |
4 |
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24 | 16 | 43 |
5 |
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24 | 13 | 41 |
6 |
![]() |
24 | 13 | 41 |
7 |
![]() |
24 | 13 | 40 |
8 |
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24 | -3 | 37 |
9 |
![]() |
24 | 4 | 36 |
10 |
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24 | -3 | 34 |
11 |
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24 | 0 | 31 |
12 |
![]() |
24 | -2 | 30 |
13 |
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24 | -6 | 29 |
14 |
![]() |
24 | 11 | 27 |
15 |
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24 | -17 | 27 |
16 |
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23 | -5 | 26 |
17 |
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24 | -18 | 19 |
18 |
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24 | -28 | 17 |
19 |
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24 | -27 | 16 |
20 |
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24 | -36 | 9 |