Newcastle United have approached Leicester City about the possibility of signing centre-forward Islam Slimani, according to the Daily Mail.
The newspaper claim in their live transfer blog (Wednesday, 10:13am) that the 2106 Premier League winners have slapped a £20million asking price on Slimani, 29.
The Mail report that Newcastle could sell fringe forward Aleksandar Mitrovic to raise funds for the capture of Slimani, who was signed by Leicester in 2016 for a fee of £30million (source: Guardian).
Slimani has scored five goals in 17 matches this season but has made just two Premier League starts. In total for Leicester, the 55-times Algeria international has netted 13 goals in 46 matches.
The Algerian is not the only striker said to be on Newcastle’s radar as Chronicle reporter Lee Ryder claimed on his personal Twitter account on Tuesday night that Magpies owner Mike Ashley has sanctioned a swoop for Feyenoord’s Nicolai Jorgensen.
OPINION
Slimani has failed to match his Sporting Lisbon scoring exploits – he scored 27 times in the Portugese league in 2015-16 – at Leicester but he has showed enough qualities to demonstrate he could be a fine signing for a Premier League club. At the King Power Stadium, Jamie Vardy remains the premier front man, with Shinji Okazaki as the preferred partner or back-up. Slimani and fellow big-money signing Kelechi Iheanacho have been unable to break the striker cartel in place. But the Algerian has pace, power and an eye for goal. He has the potential to dazzle in the England top flight and would certainly be a massive upgrade on Mitrovic.