According to Calciomercato, Newcastle are showing interest in Croatian centre-back Duje Caleta-Car.
The report claims that ourselves and West Ham are eyeing a January move for the 25-year-old, who currently plays for Marseille in France.
Caleta-Car featured for his country at EURO 2020, starting in Croatia’s 1-0 defeat to England and the extra-time defeat to Spain in the last 16.
Since then, he’s been in and out Marseille’s side over the first few months of the 2021/22 season, starting six of their 13 league games under Jorge Sampaoli.
That said, he shone in a 0-0 draw with PSG just a few weeks ago – a game which saw him keep Messi, Mbappe and Neymar quiet at the Stade Vélodrome.
He’s valued at £16m according to Transfermarkt and has just 18 months remaining on his contract, meaning the Ligue 1 side may be tempted to cash in should a decent offer arrive in January.
Time will tell if there’s any truth in this latest transfer rumours, however it does seem pretty clear we’ll be in the market for a centre-back in the new year.
Not only are we too one-dimensional at the back – lacking athletic defenders who are comfortable with the ball at their feet – we have the second poorest defence in the league this season, with only Norwich conceding more.
keeping Messi quiet is not hard sometimes as at times he does very little but trot round the pitch and only plays when he wants to.
john+marshall(Quote)