Newcastle will face competition from Premier League champions if they return for Marc Guehi

Newcastle United remain in contact with Crystal Palace over Marc Guehi after the two clubs failed to come to an agreement in the summer.

Eddie Howe had identified 24-year-old England centre-back Marc Guehi as his priority target to new sporting director Paul Mitchell.

The directive was pretty much "if you can't get Guehi, then just don't bother". After weeks of negotiations, Newcastle finally walked away from the deal.

Crystal Palace kept changing their minds over what they deemed an acceptable amount, then after selling Joachim Andersen to Fulham while Chadi Riad picked up a knock in the Carabao Cup, the deal became impossible to do.

Getty Images

Crystal Palace want Marc Guehi to sign a new contract

As difficult as Palace were to deal with, things are about to get much more difficult for Newcastle if they plan to go in for Guehi again as The Sun are reporting that Manchester City are now monitoring the England star.

Crystal Palace are trying to negotiate a new deal with Guehi too, one which will no doubt contain a hefty release clause to guard them against lowball bids.

However, The Daily Mail are reporting that Guehi is reluctant to sign a new deal and is willing to walk away from the club when his contract expires in two years. That could force Palace into selling him in the summer, if not in January.

Guehi is more likely to choose Man City over Newcastle

With champions Manchester City potentially ready to step in, that will complicate things massively for Newcastle.

Reports suggested that Guehi was keen to join the Magpies this summer and that personal terms wouldn't have been a problem, however, if he's given the choice of joining Pep Guardiola's serial title-winners, he's likely to be more inclined to want to go there.

Let's just hope that Paul Mitchell's new transfer strategy identifies plenty of back up options before we have to worry about wasting all of our time on one player again.