OPINION
Newcastle United must hijack Swansea’s £2.5million bid to sign Sunderland forward Joel Asoro this summer as the club continues to revamp their Under-23s squad.
Asoro, 19, impressed in a breakthrough season at the Stadium of Light last season, scoring three goals and supplying two assists in 11 Championship starts for the relegated Wearside club.
The young Swede showed a lot of potential in his performances for Sunderland, and that led the Daily Mail to report in April that Newcastle had started to keep close tabs on the forward, who can play as a striker or on the wing.
However now it seems that the Magpies could miss out on snatching Asoro away from their bitter North East rivals as the Mail has now claimed that Sunderland have accepted a £2.5million bid from Swansea for him.
The Black Cats are clearly in no position to demand a big fee for Asoro and Newcastle must gatecrash the Swans’ hopes of signing the highly-rated teenager and pick him up for themselves.
Rafa Benitez has hardly used any young players in his first team from the Under-23s squad at St James’ and that led to the Chronicle reporting earlier this year that a host of players had been released in a bid to overhaul the youth set-up.
Asoro is a player who would not only star for the Under-23s but he would also be knocking on the door of the first team every now and then and could develop into a really good forward, and at the very least, he could be a great investment for the future that Benitez must look into signing as soon as possible.