Newcastle United will listen to offers for several senior players this summer as the club continues its squad retooling following Anthony Gordon’s move to Barcelona.
According to The Athletic, Joe Willock is one of the clearest candidates to leave Tyneside during the next few weeks. Willock appeared in 39 games across all competitions, starting 18 games and logging 1,651 total minutes in which he scored one goal and assisted on three more.
The 26-year-old midfielder is entering the final 12 months
of his contract, and the report states he is expected to depart sooner rather than later, with Newcastle trying to avoid losing him for free next year if he stays at the club past the summer transfer window.
“Newcastle will listen to offers for Joe Willock, the 26-year-old midfielder who is entering the final 12 months of his contract, and the expectation is that he will depart,” The Athletic reported.
Sandro Tonali is also attracting interest, although Newcastle would prefer to keep the Italy international. The Athletic reported that the club would demand a high fee, which Chronicle Live’s Lee Ryder quoted at £100m, particularly if the midfield market rises because of Elliot Anderson’s valuation and Man City’s British-transfer-record offer of £106 million for the former Magpie midfielder.
Meanwhile, Tino Livramento has previously drawn interest from the same Manchester club, and Arsenal seems to have joined the race for the England international, although his injury issues could complicate a sale or drop his value quite a bit to make it profitable for the Magpies.
According to the report, Aston Villa are interested in signing winger Harvey Barnes. However, Newcastle are unlikely to entertain anything other than sizeable offers for the winger after already selling Gordon, with Barnes the only natural left-wing option in the roster at this early stage of the offseason.
Finally, regarding the goalie department, more changes are coming after the signing of Ewen Jaouen, with at least another keeper expected to arrive in Tyneside. According to The Athletic, that means the Magpies would not stand in Nick Pope’s way if he asked to leave, with the veteran likely to lose the No. 1 role next season.
Aging netminder Odysseas Vlachodimos is also available for sale after spending last season on loan at Sevilla. However, another loan may make more sense financially because of Newcastle’s SCR position, as they spent a humongous £20m fee to land him. It’s just realistically impossible to sell him for even half the price now, thus resulting in losses.
