Turkey v Georgia: Newcastle United fans' reasons to watch Euro 2024

 · June 18 2024, 10:00
Turkey v Georgia: Newcastle United fans' reasons to watch Euro 2024
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We are going to be breaking down every reason to watch the first round of group games in Euro 2024 from a Newcastle United perspective covering players who play, have played or have been linked to Newcastle.

There will be a few tenuous links as we cover some games, but we will justify every selection.

Obviously, once the first round of fixtures is done there's no real point in doing more as every Nation will have been covered at least once.

This should be a good one for Toon fans to cast an eye on with a few potential summer targets on display.

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Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is one to watch

Newcastle's scouts have been busy in Turkey so there's plenty to watch today

Newcastle have been linked with plenty of Turkish players over the last couple of years and Euro 2024 is the perfect opportunity to cast an eye over what our scouts have been seeing.

Merih Demiral is a defender that Newcastle were linked with back in 2022 after they refused the opportunity to sign him, only to then, a year later, question whether they'd made the right call.

Newcastle were once looking at Fenerbache full-back Ferdi Kadioglu to be Kieran Trippier's heir before signing Tino Livramento, now this summer it looks like Arsenal are keeping tabs on the 24-year-old.

Last summer Newcastle were hot favourites to land Turkish wonderkid Arda Guler before Real Madrid swooped in. The 19-year-old had an injury-hit season and had to wait until January to make his La Liga bow. In just 10 league appearances he managed six goals. Despite that amazing return, Real could be tempted to move him on this summer and reports in April suggested Newcastle could be keen.

More recently, however, Newcastle have been credited with an interest in 18-year-old Semih Kilicsoy. The youngster made the Turkey squad so we'll see if he gets any game time so we can have a close look at him. The Magpies are said to be set to sit down with Kilicsoy after the tournament.

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Giorgi Mamardashvili is the obvious one to watch for Georgia

As far as Georgia goes, the obvious one to watch this summer is goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, although if squad numbers are anything to go by, we may not see the £35million man in action as he's been handed the 25 shirt. It seems that the Magpies have moved on from Mamardashvili now anyway, but it'll still be interested to see how he performs if indeed he does.

Yesterday we reported that former Newcastle target Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is in hot water with his club thanks to his loose-lipped agent, so he may end up on the market this summer, but given how an alleged £80million bid was rejected last summer, we're not convinced we'd be in the mix if it does happen.

We're definitely interested to see if Semih Kilicsoy gets any action, and to go all Bullseye on Arda Guler - Look at what you could have won.

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