Newcastle United send director of football Dan Ashworth to watch Salernitana in their recent clash with AC Milan as he eyes up three players from the Italian club.
That’s according to journalist Gianluca di Marzio, who says Ashworth made the trip to Salerno on Friday to watch the two sides and Dia and two of his teammates.
The Italian explains that while Ashworth is keen to do business in Italy once again after the summer window saw him secure a big money move for AC Milan’s Sandro Tonali.
He is now keeping an eye on ‘one player per position’ according to Di Marzio, although the goalkeeping position is not on his radar.
Instead, he was looking at Lorenzo Pirola to bolster his defence, Lassana Coulibaly as a potential midfield reinforcement and Boulaye Dia for their forward line.
Whether he was particularly impressed by either of the players isn’t made clear, but all three of them started the eventual 2-2 draw so the Newcastle director did get three for the price of one ticket.
The most obvious target would be Dia, who again finds himself being linked with a move away after a summer in which he pushed to join Wolves and even went on strike at one point.
He rebuilt his bridges with the club after that, but Salernitana’s president Danilo Iervolino recently admitted publically that all of the club’s players are for sale, with Dia believed to be at the top of the list.
Perhaps that is something Ashworth is looking to take advantage of as he looks to bolster Newcastle’s injury hit squad in the coming weeks.
