Newcastle United have seen a late bid for Goncalo Inacio rejected in the closing stages of the January transfer window.

What's the talk?

That's according to a claim made by Pedro Sepulveda, with the SIC Noticias journalist revealing on Twitter (via Sport Witness) that the Magpies launched a €30m (£25m) bid for the Sporting Lisbon centre-back on Saturday afternoon. However, the Portuguese side flatly rejected the Premier League club's proposal.

In his tweet, Sepulveda said: "Sporting rejected a proposal of €30m from Newcastle [for] Goncalo Inacio. [The] English club will continue to pay attention to the centre-back of Sporting [ahead of] the next transfer window."

Fans will be fuming at PIF

Considering just how much Newcastle have struggled to sign a new centre-back this month - a position which was the club's utmost priority in the January transfer window - the news that PIF have now seen yet another offer rejected for a defender must have the St James' Park faithful fuming with the club's transfer strategy.

Indeed, Brighton & Hove Albion had already rejected two bids for Dan Burn, while Sevilla sporting director Monchi has also claimed that he will not be sanctioning the departure of Diego Carlos, despite receiving a good offer from Newcastle for the Brazilian defender.

Now, with less than 48 hours remaining in the current transfer window, PIF can add Inacio to their list of failed January targets, with Eddie Howe and fans of the club alike surely quite concerned with the lack of a central defensive signing this month.

Indeed, with the Magpies having shipped a whopping 43 goals already this season, the heart of Howe's backline is clearly an area which needs urgent attention if Newcastle are to have any hope of staying up this season. Therefore, PIF simply must get a deal over the line in the coming days, or else the richest club in the world may be playing Championship football next season.

In other news - "A failure...": Edwards drops "desperate" NUFC transfer update, Howe will be fuming