Newcastle United journalist Liam Kennedy has discussed the possibility of the club chasing after England international Ross Barkley this summer.
A recent article in The Athletic claims that midfield is Newcastle United’s priority this summer, and that is certainly backed up by the sheer number of players that they are reported to be targeting.
The likes of Joe Willock, Hamza Choudhury, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Conor Gallagher and the aforementioned Barkley have all been linked, although given the club’s reportedly small transfer budget, they won’t be able to bring in all of them.
Speaking about Barkley on NUFC Matters, Kennedy confirmed that Newcastle were indeed looking at him, but that he certainly wasn’t the club’s priority right now and they would only seriously pursue him if other avenues were closed:
“I think he’s a player that’s on their list, he’s one I forgot to mention earlier, but he is one that they are looking at. What’s the chances of it? Again, it’s one that we’ll have to wait and see on developments elsewhere.
“There will be other clubs interested, and there are other clubs interested.
“I think, again, Barkley moves on from a Gallagher, because Gallagher’s the one that they would like. If they could get Gallagher, then Barkley can’t come and that’s the end of that, because it will be two loans from the same club, both players being at Chelsea.
“So again, I think it’s one of those, sort of file it with the Maitland-Niles idea – that it could happen, but I suspect it would only happen if the other deal didn’t happen i.e. Willock and Gallagher.
TIF Thoughts on Liam Kennedy’s comments about Ross Barkley and Newcastle United…
Should NUFC sign Ross Barkley?
Yes
No
The club is actually going about this the wrong way and should be prioritising Barkley this window instead. He’s far and away the most experienced of these reported targets when it comes to top-level football, whilst the other players are for the most part still up and coming in their careers, with the exception of Maitland-Niles, and even then, Barkley still outdoes him on experience.
And given the scare that Newcastle had last season with relegation, they can’t afford to be taking any risks when it comes to who they choose, and Barkley is more of a sure thing based on his career experience and numbers so far, where he has 28 goals and 31 assists in the Premier League to his name.
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