Newcastle United appear ready to battle Arsenal for the signing of Villarreal youngster Yeremy Pino amid his continued impressive performances.
That’s according to El Desmarque, who say that both the Gunners and the Magpies have ‘made contact’ with Villarreal about a potential move for the 19-year-old.
Pino is one of the rising stars of Spanish football, having already made 71 appearances in all competitions for the Spanish club, scoring 14 goals and registering five assists.
His performances have not gone unnoticed in Spain and outside of it too, where several clubs are believed to be keeping an eye on him.
Arsenal were named as one of them back in November, with a report explaining that Gunners boss Mikel Arteta had specifically asked for the youngster to be signed as he continues his rebuild at the Emirates.
Real Madrid came calling in the summer but were rebuffed, with Villarreal instead handing the youngster a new deal with an €80m release clause to ward off interested parties.
The list of suitors has grown since that point, with Arsenal and Newcastle now among those to have ‘made contact’ with the Spanish side to register their interest.
For the moment, they are only showing a ‘mere interest’, and they have not gone any further than that, but there is every possibility that can change in the coming months.
Should they decide to turn that interest into a serious bid, they will have to match Villarreal’s €80m release clause, a figure that already ‘makes it almost impossible’ for Real Madrid to sign him.
Newcastle could certainly afford such a figure, more so than Arsenal anyway, but whether they’ll actually want to remains to be seen.
