Nottingham Forest must sell players by 30th June - Newcastle should take advantage - opinion

Financial Fair Play is probably the biggest thing wrong with the modern game right now, even more than VAR, but sometimes it does present clubs with an opportunity.

How many times have we seen reports of Newcastle United needing to sell their big stars to comply with FFP? This despite the fact that our owners could buy Manchester City and not even notice that the money was missing.

Nottingham Forest have already been hit with a points deduction for breaching FFP rules and are at risk of further punishment if they don't raise £35million before 30th June.

They have a chunk of that due for the sale of Orel Mangala who is currently on loan at Lyon with an obligation to buy being triggered.

Newcastle should make a move for Murillo

As for the rest, they will likely have to sell a player or two to make up the deficit which is where Newcastle should spring into action.

Brazilian defender Murillo is a player that we should be going for. Granted we already have two centre-backs incoming, but the 21-year-old is a direct replacement for Fabian Schar in that he's a defender who loves to get forward and is actually good at it.

We have been linked with an interest in the past and now would be the ideal time to test Nottingham Forest's resolve. Murillo joined Forest for £15milllion but they can expect to receive a considerable profit were they to sell.

There is a slight flaw in the plan

The big problem Newcastle would have here is that the transfer would obviously need to go through before 30th June and that means we'd be using the current season's budget of which there's very little remaining, hence the lack of expenditure in January.

Also, the aforementioned imminent arrival of Lloyd Kelly and Tosin Adarabioyo means that we aren't really too concerned about centre-backs right now.

Newcastle are interested in Morgan Gibbs-White, however, but his fee would be way higher than what we could realistically afford in June before the next year's FFP calendar year ticks over.