Newcastle ‘continue flirting’ with €20m defender – ‘Ready to pay’ amount needed to secure signing

Newcastle United ‘continue flirting’ with Bayer Leverkusen full-back Mitchell Bakker following their interest in the January transfer window.

That’s according to BILD, who say that the Magpies are ‘ready to pay’ a €20m asking price for the Dutchman.

Bakker has been linked with a move to Newcastle since the January transfer window when they pushed for a deal but couldn’t get it over the line.

They eventually signed Matt Targett from Aston Villa, and while that loan deal has worked out well for all parties, their interest in Bakker has not gone away.

We covered a report earlier this month that they were maintaining contact with the player over a move, and BILD have now backed that up.

That say that the Magpies ‘continue flirting’ with the defender and are ‘ready to pay’ the €20m it will require to secure his signature.

Whether Leverkusen will be open to a sale remains to be seen, although sports director Simon Rolfes is quoted as saying: “There will be no major rebuilding. We have built up a framework in the last two, three years; we want to strengthen that selectively.”

That suggests they’re not that keen on a sale, although previous reports had made it clear the player was likely to be on the move this summer.

Either way, Newcastle are continuing to show an interest in him, so his name is worth keeping an eye on as Eddie Howe and his team gear up for a big window once more.