Newcastle United are leading the race to sign Brentford attacker Bryan Mbeumo, according to a report.
The Cameroon international is once again expected to be a sought-after commodity in the market. Mbeumo has been hugely impressive for Brentford and has been attracting high-profile attention for well over a year.
Both have been heavily associated with the 25-year-old in recent weeks, although there is an acceptance that he won’t come cheap. The Bees are said to have slapped a €70 million price tag on their star forward.
As far as Man Utd are concerned, this is not a fee they can muster anytime soon if they proceed with their €73 million signing of Matheus Cunha. Journalist Ben Jacobs reports that the Red Devils have around €100m to spend before making sales later in the window.
Newcastle favourites for Mbeumo
As such, it is Newcastle who are leading the race for the versatile attacker as things stand. TEAMtalk asserts that the Magpies are currently in pole position to secure the signing of Mbeumo, with Eddie Howe keen to build a squad capable of mounting a title challenge.
Mbeumo is said to be ‘intrigued’ by the prospect of joining Man Utd, but a move to Old Trafford is unlikely at present. He would act as a replacement for Antony and Marcus Rashford under Ruben Amorim.
Newcastle, meanwhile, are concretely pursuing a move for Mbeumo and are ‘intensifying’ their efforts to convince Brentford to sell. Mbeumo is open to the move, the report claims.
Brentford have no intention of budging from their €70m valuation, but Newcastle boss Howe was recently bullish about Newcastle’s ability to spend this summer after refraining from doing significant business in recent windows due to Profitability and Sustainability Rules concerns.
“We have a strong squad, and if we can add some players for the first time in a few windows, that will make a massive difference for us, so that’s what I’m focused on, not the other way around,” Howe said last week when asked about a potential sale of Alexander Isak.
“The PSR deadline plays a huge role for clubs – both those clubs with PSR issues and those without – because those without may potentially look to try to sign players. They will look to take advantage of other clubs, as clubs did to us last year, quite rightly.
“It’s a really interesting dynamic and one that we’re really aware of and that we’ll try to use to our advantage if we can. I can’t go into the details of that, but no doubt we’ve got people at the club who are working very hard behind the scenes on it.”
Football transfer news headlines today
The FootballTransfers app
Check out FootballTransfers’ new app for all of football’s big storylines, transfer rumours and exclusive news in one convenient place directly on your mobile device.
The FootballTransfers app is available on Google Play and in the Apple App Store. Download here:
