Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe remains determined to reinforce his Magpies squad - whether he lands James Maddison or not.
United have been in talks for Maddison throughout the week with two competitive offers with a potential final package big enough to break Newcastle's all-time transfer record. The Maddison camp appear to be open to their client leaving but links with Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal have also emerged in the last couple of days.
United have not walked away from the deal yet and their offer remains on the table but Newcastle chiefs have been looking at more than one target. And a name from France emerged last night in Rennes winger Kamaldeen Sulemana suggesting there are other options despite the storm surrounding the Maddison deal.
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Indeed, after high level talks at St James' Park between Howe, sporting director Dan Ashworth and co-owner Amanda Staveley, United seem set to break through the £200million barrier in 2022. Although, there is an air of calm behind the scenes after Staveley and co led the Magpies through January when the likes of Kieran Trippier, Chris Wood, Matt Targett and Dan Burn all arrived.
The summer has already resulted in Targett arriving permanently along with impressive deals for Sven Botman and Nick Pope. And while the last month has not resulted in a breakthrough, it has shown that Newcastle chiefs won't be pushed around on financial demands.
Hugo Ekitike and his agent discovered that Newcastle had a tipping point on fees with the player ending up going to Paris St-Germain on loan rather than sign what would have been a lucrative five-year deal. And Newcastle refused to pay the £63million fee that Bayer Leverkusen were demanding for Moussa Diaby.
A summer of what Howe calls "slight frustration" caused by selling clubs has led them to Maddison but Newcastle were always pondering other targets. The former AFC Bournemouth boss still has his Premier League loan options to play with too and there has still been no concrete decision on Chelsea star Armando Broja, a player that Howe likes the idea of bringing on a season long deal.
Howe meets the media on Friday morning but when asked about targets, he told Sky Sports this week: "Different profiles, you know, but as you say, until you get a deal over the line then we’ll continue to look and see what we can do.
"But as I’ve said, the pool of players we’re looking at is actually quite small, it’s not a huge amount of names. So that’s why the deals become difficult."
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