Newcastle United could soon have company when it comes to interest in Leicester City's Harvey Barnes.
With West Ham on the brink of a £105million cash injection due to Declan Rice's sale to Arsenal, the Hammers will suddenly have a serious wad of cash burning a hole in their pocket. Like Newcastle, West Ham have long-term interest in Barnes but the Rice exit from the London Stadium will put that to the test.
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Despite talk over the weekend that Newcastle were "closing in" on Barnes, Leicester sources yesterday indicated that no official bid had been made and the winger was training as normal with the Foxes. That can change after just one phone call of course but the Europa Conference League winners do have Barnes on their shortlist.
Barnes would represent West Ham's first major signing of the summer window with just Northern Ireland youngster Sean Moore coming in from Cliftonville so far. For Newcastle, the Barnes situation boils down to asking price and whether he fits into their own valuation.
United have shown that they are unwilling to get into bidding wars for any player and walked away from the extortionate James Maddison deal that saw Tottenham Hotspur pay over the odds for a player with less than a year left of his Leicester contract. Barnes still has two years left on his deal but Leicester, rebuilding their squad after relegation, are holding out for as much as they can get.
Eddie Howe must play a game of patience in the transfer window with Newcastle determined to keep their business as private as possible until targets are pretty much on their private jet to Tyneside. Sandro Tonali kicked off what has been a solid start to the window for Newcastle and now Howe is looking to add competition elsewhere around the park.
A left-back, centre-back and forward are thought to be areas being considered by Howe with the window still open for another seven weeks. Newcastle got business done slightly earlier last summer when adding Nick Pope, Matt Targett and Sven Botman in time for their pre-season training camp in Austria. And they added £63million record signing Alexander Isak to the books in August to round off a positive summer trading period.
