Bayern Munich are expected to attempt to prise Kieran Trippier away from Newcastle this month after Thomas Tuchel made it plain he is pursuing a right-back.
Bayern’s manager is believed to have placed the 33-year-old England defender high on his shopping list and is exploring the possibility of facilitating a transfer that would reunite Trippier with his former Tottenham teammates Harry Kane and Eric Dier.
Although Eddie Howe would be loth to part with a player he has remained close to since he managed Trippier at Burnley and who continues to exert an often talismanic influence at St James’ Park, Newcastle’s manager is desperately short of midfielders and admires Bayern’s Joshua Kimmich.
With Joelinton set to miss the remainder of the season – surgery on a thigh problem is scheduled for next week – Newcastle have inquired about Kimmich’s availability. The situation is complicated by the 28-year-old Germany international’s reluctance to leave Bayern but any alteration in that stance could pave the way for Trippier heading to Bavaria.
Howe’s problem is that, given Newcastle are close to breaching the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules, he in effect needs to sell before he can buy and this could be a last chance to cash in on Trippier, who cost £12m from Atlético Madrid in January 2022.
Trippier helped Atlético win La Liga the previous year but was keen to relocate his family to England. Tuchel, though, may offer a player whose form is recovering after an uncharacteristic midwinter dip one last big adventure.
“We’re looking for a right-back so we’ll see if something is possible,” Tuchel said this week. “We’ve got used to Konrad Laimer at right-back but it’s not his best position.”
Despite Howe’s dependence on and off the pitch on Trippier, who captains Newcastle in Jamaal Lascelles’s absence, he does possess impressive cover in his position in Tino Livramento and Emil Krafth. That rare strength in depth has persuaded Newcastle to sell their fourth-choice right-back, Javier Manquillo, to Celta Vigo, where he underwent a medical on Thursday before an expected reunion with his former manager Rafael Benítez at the Spanish club.
This dictates that strengthening a midfield department weakened by Sandro Tonali’s 10-month ban for breaches of Italian betting regulations and Joe Willock’s long-term achilles injury is a priority for Howe. With Newcastle unwilling to pay the £7m loan fee required to take Kalvin Phillips from Manchester City, Kimmich remains high on the list of a manager whose scouts have also watched Atalanta’s Éderson and Middlesbrough’s Hayden Hackney in recent weeks.
Besiktas are understood to have made a bid for Lascelles but it is unlikely Howe would risk offloading his club captain and third-choice central defender when Sven Botman only recently returned from a serious knee injury.
