Sky Sports – Newcastle now weighing up surprise move for Premier League striker

According to Sky Sports, Steve Bruce is weighing up whether to make an official move for Southampton striker Charlie Austin.

Sky Sports claim that the former QPR star is one of several players on our radar, but state we made an inquiry over a potential deal ‘several weeks ago’.

Since then, it’s been made quite clear that he’s not in Ralph Hasenhuttl’s plans, being demoted to the club’s reserves and made available for a cut-price fee as a result.

Here’s what Sky Sports have had to say during their latest piece on a potential move for Austin:

“Southampton striker Charlie Austin is understood to be on a list of potential targets put to new Newcastle boss Steve Bruce.

‘The Magpies made an inquiry to the Saints about the striker several weeks ago, Sky Sports News has been told.

‘Bruce is set to decide whether Newcastle press ahead with a move for the striker, as he looks to build his new Premier League squad.

‘Austin has been training with Southampton’s U23s – which he has been far from happy about – having been put on the transfer list at St Mary’s.

He would be a very handy Joselu replacement, giving us Premier League experience and a decent back up option to Joelinton, however I have my doubts about this. Considering he’s 30, is this is a deal Steve Bruce will get the final say on? I doubt it.

He falls well outside of Ashley’s ’26 and under’ policy and would be surely be seen as a surprise signing should we pursue this deal – especially when we refused to sign a 29-year-old Rondon permanently!

Austin has bagged 16 goals in 66 Premier League appearances over the past few seasons, scoring just twice in the league across 2018/19.

Are we going to pay his alleged £8m asking price? I’m not so sure, with a free agent move and ‘pay as you play’ deal for Andy Carroll seeming more likely to me.

(Fancy writing for us? Send any articles/ideas over to us at [email protected] & we’ll get back to you!)

About Olly Hawkins

As a Junior Magpie since birth and season ticket holder, I eat, sleep and breathe all things NUFC! Here at the blog, I aim to bring you news, views, match reports and transfer exclusives as and when I get them.

3 thoughts on “Sky Sports – Newcastle now weighing up surprise move for Premier League striker

  1. Austin would be back up. Any free agent (who are never free coz you still have to shell out for signing on fees) would be a back up.

    We have Gayle and Muto as back up.

    The only way I see it is if we get £20m for Gayle and can sign Austin for £8m – profit ?.

    But then if I was the club looking to sign Gayle for £20m, I’d go spend £8m on Austin instead ??‍♂️

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  2. There’s a reason we didn’t sign Rondon the very same reason Wolves and West Ham didn’t sign him either. It was to do with wages and length of contract both of which he got in China. Good luck to him but people need to stop bringing this u26 policy BS out all the time look at Rafa’s last signings and the age they were when he signed them.
    Dubravka (29) Schär (26) Ki Sung-yueng (29) Fernandez (29) Muto (27) loans Kenedy (22) Rondon (28) so only one loan player under 26 throw in others like Murphy, Gamez and a few others blows a massive hole in this argument. Yes we’ve signed many young players under the fat one but to say we won’t sign anyone over 26 because of a policy is ludicrous. I’m all for bashing the fat one but making rubbish up to do it is silly really.

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