Marco Palestra is one of Newcastle United’s top summer targets according to a new report.
Simon Jones at The Mail says that his information is that the Atalanta right-back is a player United are looking to buy.
Marco Palestra made nine first team appearances for Atalanta in 2024/25 but was sent out on a season-long loan to Cagliari for the 2025/26 campaign.
The defender making 37 first team appearances and getting rave reviews for his performances.
Newcastle United will be looking to recruit one or more full-backs in this summer 2026 window with Kieran Trippier and Emil Krafth leaving, plus Mat Targett also seeing his contract end and moving on.
Marco Palestra definitely ticks a lot of boxes as an athletic 6ft 1 up and coming young talent who only turned 21 in March.
However, the report from The Mail says that the Italian defender has plenty other clubs interested as well.
They also point to the fact that Tino Livramento has only two years left on his contract and so surely a case of a contract extension to be agreed or Newcastle United to consider a sale. Interest from the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal has been previously reported in Livramento. Tino is now in the USA with the rest of the England squad and it remains to be seen what will happen with him at Newcastle United. My gut feeling is that he will still be at St James’ Park next season.
Regardless of that though, Newcastle United surely need at last one new right-back to come in this summer, even though Lewis Miley excelled when asked to cover in that position last season.
Marco Palestra was a central midfielder as a youth player before moving to play on the wing and then finally at right-back. That kind of versatility gives extra appeal to this potential signing.
Palestra already has two Italian senior appearances and is part of a very young Italy squad that is set to play friendlies against Luxembourg on Wednesday and the Greece on Sunday.
The Mail report: ‘Manchester City, Arsenal and Inter Milan are all known to have asked about Palestra in recent weeks as they assess right-back options in the market. Liverpool have also been linked but are working on other priorities.’
With the early sale of Anthony Gordon helping to put them in a powerful financial position to make early signings of their own, interesting to see if Newcastle United act quickly to try and land one or more new players in the near future.
Another bonus of signing Marco Palestra or any other Italian player this summer, is that with no World Cup involvement they would be able to be involved from the very start in pre-season preparations.