Newcastle United have reportedly entered the race to sign Leicester City midfielder Youri Tielemans.
It has been reported that the mega-rich Magpies, who have already signed Sven Botman and Nick Pope this summer, are considering a move to sign the Belgian international, who only has a year left on his contract at the King Power Stadium, having also been heavily linked with transfer interest from Arsenal.
Reports suggest that Newcastle's sporting director Dan Ashworth has already made enquiries regarding the former Monaco man's future, but there could be one potential stumbling block that may stop Eddie Howe’s side from signing the 2021 FA Cup winner this summer.
The report from CBS Sports claims that Newcastle are interested in potentially signing the 25-year-old, who has played 158 times for the Foxes and scored 24 goals since his arrival in January 2019.
However, the potential stumbling block is said to come in trying to convince him that he will get minutes in a midfield already containing Bruno Guimaraes, Jonjo Shelvey and Joelinton, with the Magpies hoping to build on their impressive first half of 2022 when the new campaign starts next month.
If Newcastle were to sign the midfielder this summer, it may leave the Gunners in a similar position in which they found themselves in January. Arsenal were believed to be keen on signing Guimaraes from French side Lyon but instead, Newcastle managed to seal the signature of the 24-year-old for a fee of around £40million.
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Arsenal have already spent big this summer in midfield after paying around £30m to sign Portuguese playmaker Fabio Vieira from Porto this summer, as well as completing moves for Brazilian winger Marquinhos and American goalkeeper Matt Turner for undisclosed fees from Sao Paulo and New England Revolution respectively.
The Gunners’ links with interest in Tielemans has gone on for some time but now it appears Newcastle could be in a strong position to sign the midfielder, given Arsenal have already spent £30m on bolstering their midfield with the acquisition of Vieira.
Newcastle have already made three senior signings this summer after forking out £60m on new acquisitions. They first signed left-back Matt Targett from Aston Villa for £15m, following a successful loan spell at the start of this year.
They then paid £10m to acquire goalkeeper Pope from relegated side Burnley before splashing out £35m to sign Dutch centre-back Botman from French side Lille.
It takes the club's total spend for the year so far to £113.3m after signing Guimaraes, Dan Burn, Chris Wood and Kieran Trippier in the January window on permanent deals, with Newcastle’s spending in the first window of the year propelling them up the league table in the second half of the season.
In the second half of the 2021/22 campaign, only Manchester City and Liverpool averaged more points per game than Newcastle did, despite not winning any of their opening 14 games of last season in the Premier League.
