Newcastle are pondering a move for £10m-rated Spartak Moscow striker Ze Luis, according to TEAMtalk.
The report claims that Newcastle want to sign current loanee Salomon Rondon on a permanent deal. He has a release clause of £16.5million if West Brom fail to win promotion back to the Premier League.
However, Newcastle are reportedly baulking at that price and it could go up above the £20million mark if West Brom are promoted.
Ze Luis, 28, is reportedly keen on a move to England and had been linked with Leeds over the January window. The Cape Verde international has scored 12 goals in 28 games this season.
Good move for Newcastle?
In a word, no. Newcastle have found their striker and Rondon is available for £16.5million in the summer if West Brom don’t get promoted, and at the moment it’s looking like they’d need to win the play-offs to bonce back. However, it was reported that Ashley didn’t want to spend that much money on a 29-year-old. Given that, why would he want to buy an unproven 28-year-old who’s only scored 33 goals in 101 games for Spartak Moscow? That makes no sense whatsoever. What does make sense is spending the money on Rondon. He’s getting better all the time at St James’ Park and Tony Cascarino labelled him one of the best signings of the season and potentially a £50million player. That might be a bit over the top, but he’s a much shrewder buy than Ze Luis.
This is Futbol rating: 3/10
Likely to happen?
It’s tough to say that any player is likely to move to Newcastle with Mike Ashley at the helm, especially one with an eight-figure price tag. However, we can’t see this happening. Newcastle finally landed Salomon Rondon over the summer and he’s started to show why Rafa Benitez wanted him so badly, with four goals in the last eight games. We thought that it would be a no-brainer to sign him for £16.5million in the summer, but it looks like the crazy Newcastle transfer policy could come back to bite Bentiez again. The Newcastle fans won’t be happy if they end up swapping Rondon for Ze Luis, and who could blame them?
This is Futbol rating: 4/10