Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that Newcastle United scouts have been closely monitoring Genoa centre-back Radu Dragusin.
He reveals that Toon scouts were ‘recently in attendance’ to watch the highly-rated 21-year-old in action, with this coming after the Romanian’s agent namechecked Dan Ashworth and Newcastle as a club showing interest in the 6ft 3′ defender.
Romano does report that the former Juventus talent looks set to sign a new deal with the Serie A side, but that only protects a player’s value and by no means guarantees he won’t seek a move elsewhere in the next few transfer windows. After all, his representative recently hinted at a summer move, claiming Genoa will allow him to leave for €30m.
Here’s a reminder of what Dragusin’s agent, Florin Manea, said back in October about a potential summer move and the Premier League interest he’s received:
“Genoa don’t want to give him now, but in the summer yes. If they get the price they want, you realise it’s a lot of money. Genoa want €30m, they said directly,”
“I don’t think there is anyone in Italy who would give this amount of €30m. I talked about the Premier League area, I talked about Newcastle, but they are not the only ones, there are several teams I am talking to.”
“The director (Dan Ashworth) with whom I made [a deal for] Tamaș at West Brom is now at Newcastle. We have known each other since 2009. They are also watching him, but also other big clubs in England.
“There’s no official offer yet, but it’s coming. It will be a pleasant surprise when it arrives.”
???????? Albert Gudmunsson and Radu Dragusin will both sign new long term deals at Genoa.#NUFC scouts recently in attendance to follow Dragusin as potential future CB target but Genoa want to keep both of them at least until June 2024. pic.twitter.com/p988UIGnZI
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) November 15, 2023
