Newcastle United’s reported interest in Armando Broja will have to wait at least a couple of weeks as Chelsea prepare to get their pre-season underway. Thomas Tuchel is keen to have a look at the young striker for himself after his impressive loan spell at Southampton last season.
The Magpies are not the only team who will be looking at Broja given what he showed on the South Coast. Ralph Hassenhuttl has expressed his desire to keep him at St Mary’s while West Ham have also been credited with interest as they look to sign another striker.
Like David Moyes, Eddie Howe is also keen to add another number nine to his squad this summer and numerous reports have claimed he is eyeing up the Albania international. However, unlike other business conducted so far, he won’t be able to get a move for Broja concluded early in the window.
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That is because Tuchel is keen to run the rule over his returning loanees before deciding whether they are staying or going. Conor Gallagher is another who is subject to high profile transfer interest following his loan at Crystal Palace and he too will be judged by the Chelsea boss over the next month or so.
Speaking prior to the game against Leicester towards the end of the season, Tuchel fielded a question regarding the futures of Broja and Gallagher. He said: “They will come back [to Chelsea] for sure. I want to have them in pre-season. We will decide in pre-season what goes on. It is heavily up to [them] - and how they do.”
Howe has shown, in both of his transfer windows at Newcastle, that he would prefer to get his business completed early but also doesn’t mind waiting. The deals for Kieran Trippier, Nick Pope and Sven Botman were all completed early in the respective windows but the January deals for Dan Burn, Matt Targett (on loan) and Bruno Guimaraes were all late agreements.
It will be interesting to see whether the Magpies boss is happy to wait for Tuchel to make a decision in the knowledge that he may well want to keep the 20-year-old at Chelsea. The departure of Romelu Lukaku back to Inter Milan leaves a gap in the Blues squad and Broja may be deemed quality enough to fill that void.
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