A huge Newcastle United claim has emerged over centre-back Matthijs de Ligt heading into the summer transfer window...
What's the talk?
Reporter Stefano Benzi has revealed that the Magpies and Manchester United are both keen on signing the Netherlands international from Juventus ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.
He told Italian outlet CMIT TV: “I know there are offers for de Ligt. This afternoon I called two correspondents from England, one of them revealed Perisic's contract figure of £75,000 a week.
"He also told me that in London they are talking insistently about two clubs in particular: Newcastle ready to spend a fortune and the other is Manchester United, whose coach is Ten Hag who sees in de Ligt the best, for him it would be the business card ".
Eddie Howe will be delighted
The Toon boss will be delighted by this news as De Ligt would be an incredible signing for the club and an instant upgrade on his current options at centre-back.
In both the 2020/21 and 2021/22 campaigns, the defender averaged an excellent SofaScore rating of 7.07 at the heart of the Juventus backline. This shows that he can handle the pressure of playing for a major European club and has proven that he can perform to a high level on a consistent basis - doing so over the course of two seasons in Italy.
Meanwhile, no Newcastle centre-back averaged a score higher than 6.98 in the Premier League in 2021/22 and Dan Burn was the only one with a score higher than 6.90. This shows that the Old Lady enforcer has been performing to a higher standard than the Toon players in his position.
Despite being 22, de Ligt has already played well over 200 competitive matches in his professional career - playing 117 times for Juventus and 117 for Ajax prior to making the switch to the Serie A. He has also featured in 35 matches for his country and played 37 games in the Champions League.
This shows that he is experienced at the very top level whilst still having the potential, at his young age, to develop further and improve as a defender. Newcastle would be bringing in a player who has the quality to make an impact in the here and now whilst also investing in his stock in the years to come.
Howe will, therefore, be delighted with the club's pursuit of the Dutchman and will now be hoping that PIF can get a deal over the line for him this summer.