Sky Sports have confirmed that Newcastle are in the hunt to sign Liverpool centre-back Nat Phillips.
The 24-year-old had been linked with a move to Tyneside earlier in the summer, with him expected to be sold now Liverpool have got Virgil Van Dik, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez fit again.
It looks like we’ll face competition, however, with Sky Sports revealing that German giants Bayer Leverkusen are keen alongside ourselves, Brighton, Burnley and West Ham.
He has only made 20 appearances for the Reds since graduating from their youth academy; all of them in the midst of their defensive crisis last season.
A no-nonsense, disciplined centre half who is dominant in the air, Phillips would fit the bill as Steve Bruce looks to bring in another defender this summer.
After missing out on Kristoffer Ajer to Brentford, Bruce may feel he could get his man for a reasonable fee.
A £10million fee has been mooted, but it remains to be seen just how much he has to spend, making a loan deal seem more likely at our end – yet hardly desirable to Liverpool when they have clubs queuing up to buy him.
More C**P reporting, of course we are interested in everybody, but we won’t cough up!
Joseph(Quote)
I’m sick of reading lazy journalism, there may have been a time at the beginning of the transfer window where we might have been looking to sign a CB but I can guarantee you that is no longer the case.
We had several CB’s with contracts coming to an end which meant the club obviously considered bringing in upgrades in that position but all of those players have since signed new deals.
We have 5 first team CB’s and a few others who can cover the position, we also have a full squad of 25 players. If we happen to sell someone there is no way we will sign another CB when we desperately need reinforcements in midfield and attack.
The only possible scenario that we sign a CB in this window is if we sell one of our current CB’s, no one is buying them so trust me any links you read with Newcastle buying a CB is complete bollocks
Bob(Quote)
While we all like to think that we should be building our team around Wilson, or ASM, every great team has had solid centre backs at it core. Terry, Ferdinand, Adams, Keown, Kompany, and the list goes on and on.
We don’t have a single centre back of the quality needed to do that.
Maybe Phillips would be a start.
BiffaDescartes(Quote)
I’m not saying we shouldn’t sign better quality CB’s but we have to be realistic about what Newcastle are and sadly that means we will not go out an bring in better quality players just for the sake of it.
4 out 5 first team CB’s signed new deals in the last year, for me that tells you everything you need to know about Newcastle’s desire to improve quality
Bob(Quote)
Needed this to quiet my mind .
slope unblocked(Quote)