A familiar name has been linked with a January move to St James’ Park this morning.
According to The Mail, we are showing interest in a deal to sign PSV midfielder Ibrahim Sangare; the towering midfielder who was once tipped to arrive on Tyneside during his time at Toulouse.
The 24-year-old is an imposing 6ft 3′ midfielder who has played 44 times for the Dutch giants since completing a £7.5m move from France and could be the sort of dominating box-to-box midfielder we need alongside Jonjo Shelvey.
The only issue with a move for Sangare is that he’s currently away at AFCON with Ivory Coast, meaning he could be missing for the next three weeks if they make it to the final.
Elsewhere, the same report claims that we remain locked in talks with Monaco over a move for £35m-rated centre-back Benoit Badiashile – our ‘back-up’ option to Sven Botman – and also states that we’ve added Reims’ Hugo Ekitike to our list of striker targets.
The French U21 international is only 19, however he has been one of the breakout stars in Ligue 1 this season, scoring eight goals in 17 games for Reims.
This isn’t the first France-based striker we’ve been linked with in recent weeks, with Lyon’s Moussa Dembele, Marseille’s Bamba Dieng and Reims teammate Bilal Toure also said to be of interest.
