With the appointment of Steve Bruce as their manager to succeed Rafa Benitez, Newcastle United welcomed back the idea of playing three central defenders.
To do this, however, you need a large number of players capable of featuring in the role, and with just five natural players in the role and Florian Lejeune out for the foreseeable future, depth is lacking.
That’s why the idea of signing a central defender in January is one the club appear to be considering, and scouts have already been dispatched to look at potential targets.
According to Calciomercato.it, one of those is Genoa’s Koray Günter, as they explain a Newcastle official was spotted at the 0-0 draw between Hellas Verona and Udinese on Tuesday evening.
The former Germany U20 international is currently on loan at the former of those two sides for the rest of the season, who have a €5m purchase option that would also then see a buy-back clause become available for Genoa.
It’s a bit complicated, but Newcastle are reportedly keen, and were left ‘satisfied’ with what they saw.
In fact, they are said to be ‘preparing a €10m offer with the January window in mind’ that could make Hellas Verona ‘wobble’, as that money would allow them to buy the player and immediately double their money in less than six months, even if they would be reluctant to see him leave midway through the campaign.
Not a bad piece of business if it comes off.
