Newcastle United frontrunners for Sporting CP striker
£50 million fee touted
Magpies face competition from Liverpool and Barcelona
Newcastle United transfer talk right now is centred around summer departures, making for a rather not-so-glamorous feel ahead of the summer window.
The Magpies are set to be in a position where they must sell before they buy come the end of the campaign with a big summer rebuild in the pipeline.
The Tyneside outfit are shifting their transfer strategy to invest in future stars and look to turn a profit when selling them further down the line. It marks a U-turn on the approach to incomings favoured by Eddie Howe, which had seen the manager plump for proven Premier League players.
Newcastle United in talks for Sporting CP striker
Anthony Gordon looks set to be the first out the door at St James’ Park with Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona talks well underway. Sandro Tonali, Nick Woltemade and Tino Livramento have all also been linked with departures.
However, in somewhat of an unexpected update from SportsBoom today, it’s claimed that Newcastle have made a breakthrough in their pursuit of Sporting CP striker Luis Suarez.
This is, of course, not the controversial former Liverpool man but a 28-year-old marksman playing in the Portuguese Primeira Liga. The outlet claims Suarez has become the number one target for the club.
Suarez has scored 35 goals and registered nine assists across all competitions this term, catching the eye of Premier League suitors. Those, somewhat comically given their history with his namesake, include Liverpool.
Luis Suarez praise amid £50m transfer talk
Suarez is under contract at Sporting until 2030, which does give the Portuguese side negotiating power. However, a bid of around £50 million is said to be enough to convince the club to sell. It’s added that Newcastle United are in ‘pole position’ and ‘official negotiations’ are underway, moving positively.
Barcelona are also linked with Suarez but the Catalan giants, and Liverpool, are only ‘monitoring’ the transfer at this stage.
The striker only arrived at Sporting CP from Granada last summer for around £20 million, snapped up to replace the Arsenal bound Viktor Gyokeres.
Suarez has earned widespread praise as he steps up to the plate. Teammate Pedro Goncalves said in October: “With Viktor, it took us longer to adapt because he wasn’t a player who sought out connections, first touches, and those one-twos, but rather depth.
“At that point, it was harder for me to adapt to his style of play, but then he made history at the Club, as we know. Now, the start has been quite easy playing with Luis and [Francisco] Trincao. We’ve been doing what the manager asks, with our individual qualities. I think the game is flowing well and will certainly continue. We’ll put in even better performances.”
Those words from Goncalves point to a player whose confidence has allowed him to easily transition to new environments – music to the ears of Magpies fans who have seen Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa struggle to hit the ground running this term.
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