With Newcastle United reportedly looking at left-footed centre-backs, we are going to see a few linked.
Tuesday gave us the story, from Spain, that the Magpies had already reached out to see if Clément Lenglet would be available from Barcelona, and Wednesday, we have suggestions that Inter’s Alessandro Bastoni is being looked at.
The Italian defender recently signed a new contract with the Serie A club until 2024 and is clearly a player Simone Inzaghi trusts so far in his early days at San Siro, but that might not stop his agent from trying to move his client away if the right offer comes in for him.
We know this because that very same representative, Tullio Tinti, hinted as much on Wednesday when speaking to TuttoMercatoWeb.
Asked directly if Inter fans should be worried about the Bastoni rumours swirling, he said: “He signed a contract not too long ago. I haven’t heard from Newcastle yet. I hope they’ll call me, but Bastoni has an Inter shirt for now and he’s very happy at the Nerazzuri”.
The use of ‘I hope they’ll call me’ and ‘for now’ certainly won’t fill supporters of the San Siro club with a lot of confidence, but there is still the stumbling block of having to convince Beppe Marotta and co.
After all, they already lost two of their stars in the summer in Romelu Lukaku and Achraf Hakimi, and the sale of a promising talent like Bastoni in January certainly wouldn’t go down too well.
We’ll have to wait and see, but Tinti clearly has his phone fully charged, ready to receive that phone call if and when it comes.
