Newcastle United’s pursuit of a long-term transfer target may be in jeopardy as free-spending Chelsea look to secure a deal this month.
The agent of Johan Bakayoko recently confirmed that the PSV winger will not move on from his club this month and it seems another Toon
Eddie Howe’s side are limited in what they can spend until certain fringe players such as Martin Dubravka or Miguel Almiron move on, leaving us vulnerable to missing out on certain targets in the mean time.
Premier League rivals eyeing Guehi
According to The Mail’s chief reporter Sami Mokbel, Newcastle United target Marc Guehi has emerged as a January target for former club Chelsea.
Chelsea are looking to reinforce their backline after a recent injury to Wesley Fofana and they are eyeing up a return to Stamford Bridge for Guehi – who is said to be demanding a staggering £170,000-a-week.
Mokbel reports that Palace had set a £70m asking price over the summer, with the hefty wage requests showing how astronomically expensive a deal could have been for us – though the Eagles demands may have lessened with Guehi having just 18 months left on a deal.
Chelsea sold Guehi to Palace in 2021 for £18m with a 17-20% sell-on clause, but new head coach Enzo Maresca is a ‘huge fan’ and wants to bring him back on the short trip across London.
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Time for Newcastle to look elsewhere?
Suggestions are that Mitchell prefers us to now sign a young value option from overseas, which perhaps explains the heavy links with RC Lens’ Abdukodir Khusanov. That said, I’d be surprised if our interest in Guehi has gone away considering our series of attempts to sign him in August.
Palace’s £70m valuation proved too high for us last summer, but several bids saw us push up towards the hefty fee, with our final bid thought to be worth £65m. It’s going to be interesting to see how the deal transpires after the previous effort by us was conducted so publicly.
Guehi’s form has been patchy this season and he hasn’t continued in the performances that have saw him grow such acclaim, but he would still cost a fortune in both fees and wages.
Dan Burn has been rock solid at centre-back and Sven Botman is finally back in black-and-white, so it’s unlikely to be a position of priority this month – at least not to such a drastic extent. With that in mind, we could well miss out on the Eagles captain, especially if the free-spending Chelsea get involved this month.
