Another summer of big spending and new arrivals is surely on the horizon at St James’ Park.
In the defence alone, we seem set to see Kieran Trippier, Emil Krafth and Fabian Schar all depart, with the latter two likely having already played their final games for the club.
Coupled with Jamaal Lascelles’ departure for Leicester City in January, and the slow integration of Alex Murphy and Leo Shahar into the first team setup, and serious defensive reinforcements are needed if Eddie Howe again wants to compete in as many competitions as possible.
And just a few days on from fresh links to Swiss stopper Gregor Kobel, we’re now being credited with an interest in a second Borussia Dortmund star…
According to German newspaper [BILD](https://www.bild.de/), Newcastle are in the mix to sign full-back Julian Ryerson, as Borussia Dortmund aim to balance their books ahead of the summer window.
The Bundesliga giants loss to Atalanta in the Champions League play-offs has left them in a precarious financial situation, with some stars expected to be offloaded to fund further activity.
And that’s set to include the 28-year-old Ryerson. Having impressed with his displays in the Europe, it’s thought Newcastle, Barcelona and Manchester United have all shown interest in signing the defender.
The Norwegian boasts 11 assists this season, far eclipsing what our current defenders have so far this campaign, and it’s claimed a €30m bid would be enough to land the full-back.
Regarded for his versatility, the Scandinavian star is primarily a right back, but can also operate as a left back and even further up the pitch as a right midfielder: a fantastic option to replace Trippier or Jacob Murphy, and as a back up to Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento.
After more rotten injury luck in the defence, where Malick Thiaw is the sole senior defender not to go through a spell on the sidelines, a number of names have been linked with a move to the North East in recent weeks.
In the Premier League, there’s Wolves’ Hugo Bueno: whilst not as versatile as Ryerson, he’s a very dependable option in the defence, and again could provide some much needed coverage for Lewis Hall.
And of course there’s the Serie A, where we continue to monitor the situation of Atlanta and Ivory Coast centre back Odilon Kossounou, amongst other youngsters like Genoa’s Brooke Norton-Cuffy.