Newcastle now know they will have to pay £56m to land top striker target this summer

Eddie Howe will be looking to bring new forwards to Newcastle United this summer after being caught out a few times this season.

Newcastle went into the 2023/24 campaign with just two recognised strikers in the side in the form of Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson, and much like the rest of the squad, both strikers have had their issues with injuries throughout the campaign.

Often, Newcastle were fortunate that only one striker would be injured at a time, but there were a few games where there was overlap and Anthony Gordon was deployed as a striker.

Therefore it's imperative that Eddie Howe brings in another striker this summer, but with talk that Callum Wilson is being shopped around by his agent, we may need to bring in more than one.

Sesko has a performance-based release clause in his Leipzig contract

Fortunately, Newcastle now know how much one of their main targets will cost them after his release clause was revealed, but there will be intense competition from other sides in Europe.

Benjamin Sesko has been admired by Newcastle for a while and the club contemplated a move for the Slovenian last summer before he traded RB Salzburg for RB Leipzig. He went on to have a brilliant season for Leipzig and as such, saw his release clause figure rise from €50million to €65million (£56million) as it was based on performance criteria according to Sky Sports Germany journalist Philipp Hinze.

Sesko has netted 16 goals for Leipzig this season in 40 appearances which has put him on the radar of AC Milan, Newcastle and other top sides.

Sesko might be out of Newcastle's price range this summer

With two games remaining this season, Hinze suggests that Sesko could still see his release clause bump up to as much as €75million (£64.4million) which, if that's what Newcastle ended up paying for him, would see him just overtake Alexander Isak as our most expensive signing.

Honestly, though, we can't see Newcastle spending over £60million on a player this summer, unfortunately, in fact, even £56million is probably more than we'd be willing to fork out given the restrictions of PSR.

If Newcastle do sell Callum Wilson and manage to get around £20million for him, then maybe we could see this one happening, although that would still leave Eddie Howe with just two strikers so we'd have to go out and find another one for as little as possible, which is not easy when it comes to strikers.