Report suggests Newcastle and AC Milan are to enter talks over deal for top defender in next window

Newcastle United and AC Milan are two clubs that seem to be very well connected over the past couple of years.

Both clubs fought over the signature of Sven Botman before the Dutchman signed for Newcastle, then the following year, the Magpies signed Sandro Tonali from the Italian giants.

This summer saw the two clubs reportedly engaged in talks over a deal for centre-back Malick Thiaw before it became clear that Marc Guehi was Newcastle's priority.

Indeed, Newcastle were also keeping an eye on England centre-back Fikayo Tomori who also plays for Milan, but ultimately ended up signing nobody.

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AC Milan are keeping an eye on Kieran Trippier's situation

Now, though, rumours are that AC Milan are eyeing a Newcastle defender ahead of the January transfer window.

TeamTalk claims that AC Milan are very aware of Kieran Trippier's situation at Newcastle with the former England star looking to leave the club for more regular first-team football, and likely to put some distance between himself and what's been happening at home.

Trippier was a target for Bayern Munich last January and there were said to be a trio of Turkish clubs looking at him last month, but the 34-year-old remains at Newcastle for the time being.

Newcastle should use Milan's interest in Trippier to their advantage

Eddie Howe has spoken about how he wants to keep Trippier at Newcastle and the former Atletico Madrid star started the game against Fulham on Saturday.

Our hope is that should AC Milan come with an approach for Trippier, Newcastle can work it into a deal which sees Malick Thiaw come the other way.

Newcastle still need a central defender and we wasted enough time on Marc Guehi in the summer, so going back to Thiaw makes sense.