The Joachim Andersen rumour that just won't go away

Newcastle United have been persistently linked with Crystal Palace's 27-year-old Danish centre-back Joachim Andersen this summer, with the rumours bubbling back up to the surface this week.

With Sandro Tonali, Harvey Barnes, and now Tino Livramento through the doors at St. James' Park, it appears that the recruitment team have turned their attention to securing a right-sided central defender to further bolster Eddie Howe's squad.

Howe himself said that he hoped to bring in "a couple more" before the Livramento deal was confirmed, meaning that any defender that joins before now and the end of the transfer window could be our last piece of business.

Many names have been floated throughout the summer—Jean Clair Todibo, Axel Disasi, Oumar Solet to name a handful of the more recent ones—but the one that just won't go away is that of Andersen.

Simon Jones of The Daily Mail was the first to report Newcastle's interest in the Danish international defender, stating back in mid-June that the club had "made an enquiry", but that his £40 million price tag was going to be a sticking point.

The link has come and gone since then, but now that the rest of the Magpies' business has been concluded Andersen is seemingly back on the agenda. Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano mentioned the rumour on his "Here We Go" podcast just yesterday, saying:

"Let’s see what happens with the centre-backs, I think, as an extra deal.

They always had conversations with Disasi but then he joined Chelsea, also they spoke multiple times with the agents of Joachim Andersen who is a player they have appreciated for a long time."

Then, today, Jacque Talbot of Football Transfers has reported that Newcastle believe Crystal Palace will soon relent and lower their asking price, but that a move depends on the Selhurst Park club's pursuit of Bayer Leverkusen defender Odilon Kossounou:

Palace signed Andersen from Lyon for around £17 million in 2021, with the Dane being a teammate of Bruno Guimarães for a short while. He has since made 72 appearances for the Eagles, scoring one goal, and has reached 23 caps for his national team.

Most scouting reports note similarities between Andersen and Fabian Schär, who he would be competing for a shirt with should he sign. The Danish defender is incredibly comfortable in possession, not afraid of a long diagonal, and happy to take on shots from range off either foot.

Four-and-a-half years younger than Schär, Andersen would bring significant international experience and has also played in the Champions League. He's not the fastest, however, as Kev Lawson of StatsBomb has previously noted:

There's no doubting his quality, though, which you can see for yourself in this 2023 highlight reel of his games for Palace and Denmark: