With just a few days left in the January transfer window, it’s looking scarily likely that Eddie Howe and Newcastle United won’t be bringing in any big names by the time February 2nd rolls around.

Even after an injury-blighted first half of the campaign, Howe had previously warned that major reinforcements were by no means a certainty this window.

The defence in particular has been left in tatters in recent weeks, only just helped by the return of Dan Burn to the squad: his MOTM display against PSG was a very welcome sight to see.

But as slim as it may seem, a new report claims that we are showing interest in four different young defenders from Italy – a good sign that we’re not losing focus on one of the core aspects of the entire Newcastle United project in terms of building a youthful defence for the future.

Four Serie A defenders on radar

According to The Mail’s Craig Hope, Newcastle have been keeping a close eye on four Serie A defenders.

Atalanta centre-backs Odilon Koussonou, 25, and Honest Ahanor, 17, are on the club’s radar after impressing at the Bergamo based club, with Koussonou having previously been scouted when he was at Bayer Leverkusen.

Another Italy-based defender being eyed up is England U-21 talent Brooke Norton-Cuffy, who is currently at Genoa. The former Arsenal right back has been receiving interest from Inter Milan, however.

Then there’s Portuguese centre back Tiago Gabriel from Lecce: a 21-year-old who has played a full 90 minutes in all but one game in the league this season.

Two January deals not on the cards

Another option Newcastle have been weighing up is Dayan Methalie, the 19-year-old Toulouse defender, from being linked with a move.

Hope has revealed that if it wasn’t for the youngster’s ongoing knee injury, Newcastle would have likely made a move for the versatile Frenchman.

Then there is former Chelsea and West Ham defender Kurt Zouma, who has been linked with a shock move to Tyneside over the past week.

However, Hope insists that Newcastle will not be pursuing the 31-year-old centre-back after he was offered our way on a free transfer following a serious injury to Fabian Schar.