Newcastle should seriously consider Nicolai Muller this summer

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Hamburg’s Nicolai Muller should be on Newcastle United’s radar this summer.

Kenedy might have played just three times for Newcastle United in the Premier League but he is already looking like the sort of player Rafa Benitez has needed all season.

The Magpies have averaged less than a goal a game in 2017/18 but the Chelsea loanee’s speed, directness and quality end product mean he has immediately nailed down a place in the starting XI.

And, since a superb debut against Burnley, in which he won a penalty and set up a goal, Newcastle have picked up five points from a possible nine.

Yet while the Northern Echo states that Kenedy would be open to a permanent switch to Tyneside if Newcastle manage to stay in the Premier League, it is less than certain that a deal could happen.

After all, owner Mike Ashley has demonstrated again and again an unwillingness, or perhaps inability, to spend big and Chelsea usually demand top dollar for their players, especially one as young and promising as the Brazilian winger.

So Benitez should have a few bargain alternatives in his sights before the summer. someone like Nicolai Muller, available on a free when his contract at Hamburg expires, should be under consideration.

It is understood that West Ham are keen on the 30-year-old but, with Manuel Lanzini, Marko Arnautovic and Michail Antonio in the squad and Joao Mario keen to stay beyond his loan spell from Inter, it appears that Muller isn’t really needed at the London Stadium.

A lively and pacey attacker who scored or assisted 25 Bundesliga goals between 2015 and 2017 before suffering a cruciate ligament injury that has destroyed his season, Bild report that the cash-strapped Hamburg simply cannot afford to hand Muller a new deal.

So a Newcastle side in need of lively and pacey attackers, and cheap ones, too, should have a look.