Top journalist in Germany has moved to pour cold water on Newcastle's interest in 'world-class' winger

Newcastle United and Arsenal were two clubs mentioned as being interested in picking up German international Leroy Sane at the end of the season when his Bayern Munich contract expires.

When the story first broke we covered it almost as a funny article as one of the crazy transfer stories involving our magnificent club.

There have been plenty, especially in the early days post-takeover when everyone believed that Newcastle would throw money everywhere to sign the biggest players in the game.

That didn't happen and eventually, the madness died down but it never completely went away.

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Leroy Sane is a dream signing for Newcastle that will not become reality

Newcastle were initially linked with Leroy Sane as a potential free transfer should the 'world-class' star refuse to sign a new deal at Bayern Munich, but it was later reported that both Newcastle and Arsenal were lining up a cheeky low-ball bid for Sane in the January window to see if Bayern would be tempted to sell for around £25 million rather than lose Sane for free.

The problem with both stories is that Sane is on a ridiculous amount of money at Bayern, reportedly £325k-a-week which is way beyond Newcastle's current top earner Bruno Guimaraes' £160k-a-week.

Add to that the fact that Sane is refusing to sign a new deal at Bayern because they've offered him less money, then you can see the problem here.

Christian Falk has demonstrated why Leroy Sane will not move to Newcastle or Arsenal

Now BILD's Christian Falk has confirmed as much to Caught Offside after saying that he's heard that neither Newcastle or Arsenal have actually made an approach to Bayern or Sane, and he sets out why he thinks neither actually will.

“It was reported in England that there was interest in Leroy Sane from Newcastle and Arsenal. I talked to the management at the club and apparently no one was asking directly for the player.

“Bayern Munich want to clarify his situation as he’ll be a free agent in the summer. He’s currently earning a lot of money at the club (€15m plus €5m in add-ons). It’s very easy for him to activate his add-ons as he gets a €1m after every six games played.

“If you look at Arsenal’s situation, you see they now have Raheem Sterling, and I heard that they don’t pay his whole salary. Their agreement with Chelsea sees Arsenal pay £100,000-a-week, whilst the remaining £200,000-a-week is covered by Chelsea. So, he’s earning €18.6m [£15.6m] a year, which Arsenal didn’t want to pay! If you can’t pay that for Sterling, I think it’s very hard to pay €20m for Leroy Sane.

“I heard Newcastle were also interested but it was the same game with Michael Olise. Bayern Munich were in the talks along with Newcastle with the former, eventually paying a €13m salary for Olise (it could be €13m plus €3m in add-ons). Both amounts would be too high for Newcastle. If you can’t meet that figure for Olise, it’s getting hard to pay more for Sane.”

It's not difficult to see the logic here. Sane seems way out of the price range of both sides.