Fabrizio Romano has confirmed Newcastle’s interest in Bayer Leverkusen’s Edmond Tapsoba and Benfica’s Antonio Silva.
The well-known journalist reveals that the club “love” both centre-backs and are keen to bring one of them to St James’ Park this summer, but moves for either look “almost impossible” as things stand due to FFP restrictions.
The Italian claims we’d have to raise funds through player sales to afford Tapsoba or Silva, who would be “way too expensive” unless our financial situation improved.
Speaking to GiveMeSport, here’s what Romano had to say:
“I think it’s almost impossible to make it happen because of the Financial Fair Play situation.
“Edmond Tapsoba and Antonio Silva are two centre-backs that they love. But at the moment they are way too expensive for Newcastle because, with the Financial Fair Play situation, it’s complicated.
“So, they would need to sell a player of the same value, and it means someone around €55-€60m [£47m-£51.3m], so it’s more than complicated.”
It’s been reported all summer that we’ve wanted a right-sided centre-back able to compete with Fabian Schar. However, after permanent deals for Sandro Tonali, Harvey Barnes and Tino Livramento, along with an imminent loan-to-buy move for Lewis Hall, it seems another big-money deal may be beyond our reach.
That said, I wouldn’t rule out another loan move should the right centre-back become available and high-earning outcasts like Ryan Fraser, Jeff Hendrick and Isaac Hayden move on.
