Just as some reported that Newcastle could have a ‘free run’ at Anthony Elanga as the only bidder at the table, reports on Tuesday afternoon suggest that is no longer the case.
A week ago today, David Ornstein reported that Newcastle had failed with a £45m bid for the Nottingham Forest star, leaving the club deciding whether to return with an improved offer or pursue other targets/
Sky Sports have indicated that £60m is the asking price, with Keith Downie stating that PSV’s Johan Bakayoko, Dortmund’s Karim Adeyemi and West Ham’s Mohammed Kudus are all options we’ll explore if a compromise can’t be agreed with Forest.
However, Downie reported last night that Elanga is keen on a move to St James’ Park and sounded confident that we’ll get our man, expecting movement on this one in the coming days.
Today, following reports from Lee Ryder that we’ve made a second bid in excess of £50m, talkSPORT now claim that Aston Villa are also showing interest in the 23-year-old winger.
Unai Emery’s side announced today that they have opted against permanent deals for loan additions Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio, leaving them light on attackers heading into the 2025/26 season.
Villa came out of June without having to sell a key player, with a deal in the region of £55m to sell their women’s team bailing them out instead.
Hopefully this does not complicate our pursuit of yet another key target, especially when we have already lost out to Man Utd (Mbeumo), Chelsea (Delap and Pedro) and potentially Liverpool (Guehi) already this summer.
Thankfully, we can offer Elanga Champions League football, unlike Villa, and a chance to link up with fellow countryman Alexander Isak, along with good friend Will Osula.