According to The Mail, Newcastle could turn their attentions to Arsenal’s Ainsley Maitland-Niles after missing out on a deal for Mario Lemina.
This comes from Simon Jones, who claims that we are also looking to sign Gunners teammate Joe Willock, along with a new centre-back.
Lemina was said to be high on our wanted list and a player The Mail reckon we’ve been in talks to sign, however he’s now arrived in the South of France to secure a £4.7m move to Nice.
Moving forward, it looks like Maitland-Niles might be a possible alternative to the Southampton midfielder – although it would be anything but straightforward to sign both him AND Willock.
Premier League rules dictate that you can’t have more than one player on loan from the same club, meaning we’d have to sign one of them on a permanent deal.
Is that possible if Bruce’s entire transfer budget is an alleged £10m? You wouldn’t think so, meaning we’ll have to hope Ashley is prepared to release more funds now arbitration has been put back until at least ‘early 2022’.
The Mail report that we’ll face competition for Maitland-Niles’ signature, as Southampton – who have just agreed to sell Lemina – and Burnley are also in the mix.
The 23-year-old has been linked with a move to St James’ Park on a number of occasions since Steve Bruce took the job, with him a versatile midfielder who can also operate at full-back.
He spent the second half of the 2020/21 season at West Brom, playing 15 games for the Baggies under former boss Sam Allardyce.
Owt for nowt?
Give Ashley a shout!
Steve(Quote)
Prem will allow take over that’s why they have delayed it to stop truth coming out will be done behind closed doors with guarantee nothing comes out that’s the only way they can protect them selves
Larry Lauri(Quote)