Newcastle now reportedly keen on £50m England youth international from PL rivals

The January transfer window is edging ever nearer but Newcastle United are thinking beyond that window and already earmarking players for the summer.

There are certain positions that Newcastle simply must strengthen in the next couple of windows after failing to add any significant upgrades in the last two.

January is a notoriously difficult window to operate in and is usually saved for desperate times - such as Eddie Howe's first transfer window in charge at Newcastle when reinforcements were imperative to keep the club in the Premier League.

Normally, however, the inflated prices and clubs' reluctance to deal often means that the bulk of a side's transfer business is conducted in the summer.

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Newcastle are now said to be keen on Aston Villa's Jacob Ramsey

That's why most of the transfer links we've seen lately often mention a summer move rather than a January approach, and Give Me Sport have brought us another one today.

They claim that Newcastle, along with Tottenham and Arsenal are looking at Aston Villa attacking midfielder Jacob Ramsey as a potential summer signing.

The 23-year-old has had his share of injury issues but when he's been fit for Villa he's often looked like an excellent player.

Aston Villa will ask £50m for Jacob Ramsey

Aston Villa are likely to rate him at around £50 million and given he is an academy product that would be massive for Villa in terms of PSR.

We've no doubt that Ramsey is a quality player, but our issue is where the England U21 star fits in at Newcastle. He's an attacking midfielder which is a position we don't really use, or he can be deployed on the wing ... on the left wing which we have pretty well covered with Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes.

Of course come the summer there could be some movement in the window that creates a space for Ramsey, but as things stand, we're not sure what the thinking is behind this one unless Eddie Howe feels he can get Ramsey to play on the right wing, maybe?