Newcastle United’s search for a new centre-back continues, and NUFC Blog can reveal that Inter Milan’s Yann Bisseck is a player the club have watched closely.
Toon scouts have tracked the 24-year-old’s progress over the past two seasons, where he has risen from a prospect on the fringe of their first team to featuring regularly across the 2024/25 campaign.
The towering and athletic German international stands 6’5”, is one of the top duel-winners in Europe, and has recently racked up valuable Champions League experience, starting seven of their 15 games en route to May’s final.
With the potential to strike ambitious deals in Serie A highlighted by Sandro Tonali’s £55m arrival from AC Milan in July 2023, it’s no surprise that Newcastle continue to scour the Italian market.
Former Inter boss Simone Inzaghi handed Bisseck his chance and 27 league outings last season, publicly praising the defender’s intelligence and work ethic. However, Inzaghi has since left the San Siro for Saudi giants Al-Hilal.
Bisseck is likely to remain a big part of Inter’s plans under new boss Cristian Chivu and would not come cheap, as he’s just come off the back of his best season yet and is under contract until 2029.
Nonetheless, he is another option Newcastle could pursue as we search for a young, right-sided centre-back, with Premier League interest from Aston Villa, Spurs and Man Utd previously reported.
Another centre-back of interest, as we exclusively revealed back in March, is Brentford’s Nathan Collins, who is considered one of the Premier League’s most underrated defenders in some scouting circles.
Like Bisseck, he is 24, physically dominant, offers a surprise turn of speed for a player of his size and has also been tracked by Newcastle scouts, but a deal for the Irishman looks to be a non-starter.
With Brentford losing manager Thomas Frank (Spurs), captain Christian Norgaard (Arsenal) and top scorer Bryan Mbeumo to Man Utd now a £70m deal has just been agreed, the Bees are unlikely to even entertain a departure for their star centre-back.
At the other end of the pitch, another player Newcastle have tracked is OGC Nice forward Evann Guessand.
The 24-year-old Ivorian can play anywhere across the front line or in a second striker role. He bagged 13 goals and 10 assists with the Ligue 1 side last season and has attracted interest from Brighton and Wolves.
Rubbish. If we wanted Collins, we’d have done it ages ago before Brentford started selling other players
Bob Dodsworth(Quote)
Newcastle watching said player regularly doesn’t automatically = they bid and they sign.
We watched Mbeumo even more but didn’t end up even going for him…
Olly Hawkins(Quote)