Newcastle take first steps to sign £7,500-p/w defender

Newcastle United have reportedly opened talks over signing another defender this summer as Eddie Howe looks to bolster his backline ahead of the new Premier League season.

Business slow for Newcastle United

As it stands, Newcastle United will be heading into their Premier League opener against newly promoted Southampton with just four new faces in their ranks.

Two of those, goalkeeping pair John Ruddy and Odysseas Vlachodimos, are unlikely to see too much first team action barring an injury to no.1 Nick Pope, with the Greek shot-stopper having been signed as part of a deal to sell promising talent Elliot Anderson to Nottingham Forest.

Elsewhere, they have added free agent Lloyd Kelly from Bournemouth to bolster their backline, while William Osula has also arrived from Sheffield United in a deal worth £10m.

Though both deals may prove shrewd, they are far less than what was expected on Tyneside given the Saudi Arabian ownership of the club. They have, however, been boosted by the return of Sandro Tonali from a gambling ban, with the club’s record signing available to return to action from the end of August in a move that will help ease midfield concerns for the Magpies.

Meanwhile, they are locked in talks over a deal to sign Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi, having had two bids turned down for his services so far. Earlier in the week, Palace chairman Steve Parish was bullish over his defender, who is refusing to sign a new contract at Selhurst Park.

“Nobody has got to the valuation yet. If you want a superstar player you need to pay superstar money,” he explained. “It’s not near the point where we have to make a decision. We love having him and would love to keep him. If someone else wants to have him they need to make it really difficult for us. He’s a generational talent.”

Newcastle continue to push for his signature, and have now kick started a move for another defensive target.

That comes in the 6 foot 3 shape of Toulouse centre-back Logan Costa, who Eddie Howe’s side have been linked with several times this summer. The 23-year-old is down to the final two years of his £7,500 per week deal in the south of France, and has been linked with moves to West Ham, Bologna and the Magpies.

Valued at between €18m and €20m (£15.4m-£17.1m) by his club, Newcastle have now taken the first official step towards his potential arrival.

That comes as Bologna local media [via Sport Witness] claim that Howe’s side have now made “first formal contact” over a deal for the defender as they pursue a deal – the Italian press are following the deal due to Bologna’s own interest.

Any move for Costa alongside Guehi would be a strange one in the long term, with Fabian Schar, Sven Botman and Jamal Lascelles all already at the club as well as new signing Kelly, despite Botman and Lascelles currently recovering from injury and expected back later in the season.

As the Magpies head into the new campaign with no backup options to Kelly and Schar, though, it makes a lot of sense for their immediate results.