'No reason to leave': 28-year-old Newcastle United target may not be as keen to move as his club may hope

Newcastle United's pursuit of a new central defender is throwing up many names and the narrative his ever-changing regarding pretty much every one of them.

This time it's the turn of South Korean international Kim Min-Jae who is being touted as a player that Bayern Munich will be looking to offload in the summer.

Newcastle have been keen on Kim Min-Jae for a while and were looking to make a deal for the former Napoli defender before he moved to Bayern Munich.

However, while he looked like a world beater at Napoli, he's failed to continue that form in Germany and reports have been suggesting that the Bundesliga giants would accept any reasonable offer for his services this summer.

Kim Min-Jae has no desire to leave Bayern Munich despite reports linking him with move away

The 28-year-old has been made out to be a bit of a scapegoat of late at Bayern as he was deemed to be at fault for both Inter Milan goals as the Serie A side knocked Bayern out of the Champions League.

However, in an interview with SportBILD, Kim Min-Jae has stated that he feels there's no reason for him to move this summer.

“For me, there’s no reason to leave.

“I hope I can stay. But we’ll see, I just want to be fit next season.”

We're not convinced Kim Min-Jae is the right move for Newcastle this summer

Obviously, it wouldn't paint a very good picture if he had said that he wanted to leave, but it does feel like a genuine message of defiance.

We're not sure how intense Newcastle's interest in Kim Min-Jae is, especially given his drop in form since moving to Bayern. It feels to us as if it's just a recycled link from two years ago that has been resurrected as Bayern's patience reportedly wears thin.

We know players can get a second wind when they move clubs, so we wouldn't be totally opposed to us signing him this summer, but at 28, he does seem to be at the very top end of the age range we should be looking at.