On Tuesday, we covered an article from Italy regarding an interest from Newcastle United in Duván Zapata.
The Colombian target man, who is said to dream about playing in England, was one of two names on a list at St James’ Park alongside Darwin Nuñez, to bolster Eddie Howe’s attack.
The belief was that Newcastle would push for Zapata with a €30m offer, which wouldn’t be enough, as the Bergamo side wanted to only sell their star man for a fee of at least €45m.
This is somewhat echoed by TuttoMercatoWeb on Wednesday, who claim a first bid was made by the Magpies, but it was ‘unconditionally refused’.
That was reportedly of £5m up front for a loan with an £18m obligation to buy clause automatically triggered should Newcastle stay in the Premier League.
However, Newcastle aren’t giving up yet, as the website claim that ‘a new proposal is expected in the next few hours’ that will ‘come a lot closer to the €40m region’, which is said to be what Atalanta are looking for to sell the player.
While the Serie A side aren’t against a loan, they want to make sure that they get paid regardless, meaning that, ‘in short: if there is a loan proposal with a true obligation to buy, that is without the condition of avoiding relegation, then, at that point, Atalanta would give the green light’.
The price stands at €40m, and the Italians ‘would also have a possible substitute’.
TuttoMercatoWeb do point out that while Zapata is the number one goal for Newcastle, there is also ‘the problem of spending €40m for a player who, next summer, risks being a luxury for the Championship’, meaning this is a situation that ‘must be evaluated well’.
Down the player’s end, however, the striker already ‘has an agreement with Newcastle for around €6m/year for three and a half years’, which would see him triple the €2m/year wages he currently earns.
