The Magpies tabled an improved £55m offer for Elanga yesterday, with their latest offer taking them extremely close to Forest’s valuation of the 23-year-old.
Forest are understood to be happy with Newcastle’s offer of an up-front payment, and sources claim discussions are now taking place over a handful of add-ons that will complete the deal.
Those talks should not take too long to resolve, with Newcastle’s recruitment team keen to have Elanga in place before the start of pre-season training.
The Sweden international is understood to be excited at the prospect of moving to St James’ Park, with talks over personal terms not expected to present any problems.
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Signing Elanga will finally end Newcastle’s long-running search for a new right-sided attacker, with the forward having played off the right-hand side for the vast majority of his time at the City Ground.
The Magpies initially approached Brentford over Bryan Mbeumo, but were forced to turn to Elanga when the Bees forward expressed a preference for joining Manchester United.
Elanga has always featured prominently on Newcastle’s wanted list, however, with the Magpies having had a bid rejected by Nottingham Forest on deadline day last summer.
Born and raised in Malmo, Elanga spent time in the youth set-up at Elfsborg, Malmo and Hattersley in his homeland before joining Manchester United’s academy at the age of 12.
He made his senior debut in May 2021 and made 55 senior appearances for Manchester United before moving on to Forest in the summer of 2023 for a reported fee of £15m. Manchester United inserted a 20 per cent sell-on clause into the deal, which will kick in if Elanga completes his move to St James’ Park.
He has made 82 appearances for Forest, scoring 11 goals, and was a key part of Nuno Espirito Santo’s side that qualified for Europe last season.
He has won 22 senior caps with Sweden, scoring four goals, and is an international team-mate of Newcastle striker Alexander Isak.
As well as tying up the signing of Elanga, the Newcastle hierarchy are also hoping to wrap up a deal for James Trafford in the next few days.
They have held a series of discussions with Burnley over the goalkeeper, and have made progress this week as they attempt to secure an agreement that is acceptable to all parties.