Newcastle United have offered a fee of over €30million for Colombia international Duvan Zapata.
The proposed deal is one of a number of high-value transfers being worked on by an ad hoc recruitment team as the Saudi Arabia-owned club's scrambles to buy a way out of relegation from the English Premier League club.
While Atalanta are open to selling Zapata – who has scored 65 goals in 118 Serie A appearances for the Italian club – they are understood to value the 30-year-old at around €45m. Zapata, under contract in Bergamo until 2023, is said to be open to moving to St James' Park should the two clubs ultimately agree a fee.
Under pressure to preserve the Premier League status that cost Saudi's Public Investment Fund and her other co-investors an initial £305m to wrest from Mike Ashley in October, Amanda Staveley's player recruitment team is attempting to add another striker to last week's hurried £25m release-clause signing of Burnley's Chris Wood.
According to sources close to the negotiations, Zapata is being worked on as an alternative should Staveley and co fail to secure their current preferred choice for the position, Darwin Nunez. Benfica have been asking a transfer fee of €60m for the Uruguay international whom they signed from Almeria for €24m 16 months ago. The financially challenged Lisbon club are contractually obliged to pay both 20 per cent of any capital gain on a sale to Almeria and a large commission to the 22-year-old's intermediaries.
Newcastle have won just one League fixture this season and lie second bottom of the table with 18 matches remaining. Having already furnished early-November managerial appointment Eddie Howe – who was not the new ownership's preferred choice to replace Steve Bruce – with Wood and England full back Kieran Trippier, Newcastle are trying to add another striker, a central midfielder and a centre back, while also looking at additional positions.
Amongst a host of complicating factors, both exogenous and self-inflicted, those attempts to strengthen have been hindered by an antagonism towards the Saudi-led takeover from other Premier League clubs. In response, Staveley's team is focusing recruitment effort on overseas-based players; particularly those available by exercising a release clause.
At centre back, Newcastle ran into predictable obstacles when attempting to sign their first-choice recruit, Sven Botman, from Lille. A subsequent bid of €25m for Diego Carlos has seen Sevilla seek to exploit both their urgency and their failure to agree personal terms with the Brazilian before making that club-to-club offer by inflating their asking price. Newcastle have spent the weekend canvassing alternatives for what is considered an essential upgrade to the defensive line.
