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Late last week, it was claimed that Newcastle United had made an approach for Michele Di Gregorio, which the player had himself turned down.

It was explicitly stated when this had taken place, but considering the situation surrounding the goalkeeper role at St James’ Park and the injury to Nick Pope, it would have made sense for the Magpies to have made the move around January.

Other teams other than Newcastle are keeping an eye on the 26-year-old, with AC Milan and Juventus also looking at him, which has led to Monza’s CEO, Adriano Galliani, suggesting he might need some help to best value his star.

Caught by Calciomercato.it, the director was asked about the goalkeeper and the interest in him, to which he replied: “I haven’t spoken with anyone [about clubs circling], he has three years of contract left. Does he cost €20m? I don’t know how much he’s worth, I’ll get a financial advisor.”

To put in perspective how well Di Gregorio has played this season for Monza, you only need to compare his statistics from last season compared to this one.

During the 2022-23 campaign, he had let 49 goals in over 37 Serie A games, keeping 10 clean sheets, whilst he already has 12 clean sheets after 23 league games this time around, conceding a mere 17 goals.

His defence will also have helped a lot, but this also shows why the likes of Newcastle have started looking at him, perhaps on the off chance that Nick Pope needs a bit longer than expected to recover, with neither Loris Karius nor Martin Dubravka exactly covering themselves in glory in his absence.