Newcastle United’s rebuild is beginning to shift toward incoming transfers after the club sold both Anthony Gordon to Barcelona and agreed to send Sandro Tonali to Tottenham in a loss of two members of their XI for next season.
Those moves sandwiched the signing of Hoffenheim winger Bazoumana Toure, who is expected to join Newcastle for a fee of €50m million.
Now, according to Fabrizio Romano, Newcastle is preparing its first official bid for another Bundesliga player in Freiburg midfielder Johan Manzambi.
Romano reported that Newcastle has already made contact on the player side in recent weeks and has scouted the Switzerland international at the World Cup, pending the submission of a formal offer to the German club.
“Newcastle are preparing their first official bid,” Romano said on his YouTube channel. “They already had some contacts on player side over the recent weeks. Newcastle were already scouting the player.”
Manzambi has been one of the breakout players of the World Cup, scoring three goals and assisting on two more while helping Switzerland reach the Round of 16, where they will face Colombia.
All of the above said, Romano warned that Freiburg will demand “important money” in exchange for their 20-year-old player, meaning the deal will not be cheap for Newcastle. However, Romano also suggested Newcastle could try to move quickly to avoid another transfer collapse.
Manchester United has also been linked with Manzambi, which could foster a bidding war and might put Manzambi out of Newcastle’s reach, if not for pedigree reasons, then for financial ones.
