Liam Kennedy has been speaking on the latest edition of NUFC Matters about all things relating to Newcastle United.
One of the topics that he spent some time on was transfers and potential targets and what positions that the Toon would like to strengthen.
Newcastle reportedly have a budget of around £12m and are targeting moves for Kristoffer Ajer and Hamza Choudhury.
Ajer seems to be a deal the Toon want to do, while they also want to improve their options in the centre of midfield.
The Shields Gazette reporter said: “The central-defensive and the central-midfield departments are things that they’re looking really, really closely at.
“I know scouts have been all over the place with regards [to] central defenders. There are a couple of moves that could happen. I’m not going to say definitely that they will, but I’ll tell you players that they are looking at.
“They’re looking at Danilho Doekhi, who plays for Vitesse in Holland; they’re looking at Kristoffer Ajer – Norwegian centre-half, who plays for Celtic. I think that’s probably the lad who’s top of their list.”
Kennedy then compared the 23-year-old to Virgil van Dijk, who swapped Celtic for the Premier League and is now one of the world’s best centre-backs.
“I’m not going to say Ajer is going to do exactly the same thing, but there are little similarities in the way that they play. Ajer [is] a bigger centre-half as well, but I think that’s one that they want.”
Do you think that Newcastle need defenders and midfielders?
Yes, those are the positions we need
No, other positions need to be improved
TIF Thoughts on Newcastle’s targets and Kristoffer Ajer…
Ajer is expected to cost £8m, which arguably isn’t too bad for a young full international who has played in Europe, so that could be one to keep an eye on.
It is interesting to hear that the Toon want to sign more central midfielders.
You would think the prime candidate for this would be Joe Willock, who arrived on Tyneside in January on loan and scored eight Premier League goals, including seven in his last seven games.
Either way, it appears to be a position they are well-stocked in, and we will be intrigued to see who they bring in over the coming months.
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