Former Premier League ace Dietmar Hamann believes the ‘brilliant’ Florian Grillitsch could be a valuable addition to Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United squad, speaking to Tribal Football of the Bundesliga ace.
This is not the first time Grillitsch has been linked with a move to England.
But, with Newcastle now holding the sort of cash they could have only dreamed off during the make-do-and-mend Mike Ashley era, Hoffenheim’s 6ft 2in Austria international may be on the move at last.
The Sun reported last week that, with Grillitsch out of contract next summer, Newcastle are confident a cut-price bid of £4 million may be enough to secure the 26-year-old’s signature.
Howe, Steve Bruce’s St James’ Park successor, has already made a commanding central midfielder one of his top priorities heading into the January transfer window.
And Grillitsch, elegant and enterprising in equal measure, could be the perfect foil for the mercurial Jonjo Shelvey.
Will Florian Grillitsch be Eddie Howe’s first Newcastle signing?
“I think he’s a very good technical player,” says Hamann, the former Liverpool and Man City scrapper.
“The only question marks over him would be if he could cope with the physicality of the Premier League. It is a different game and it’s something that he still needs to work on, but he’s a brilliant player.
“Technically he’s very gifted. If he played in the right system, he could definitely help Newcastle.”
Grillitsch has been linked with Newcastle since the summer of 2020, when he was valued in excess of £20 million.
In fact, if it wasn’t for the impact of the covid-19 pandemic, which restricted the spending of even deep-pocketed Premier League clubs, the former Werder Bremen giant might already be strutting his stuff on English soil.
“Flo Grillitsch is one of the best number sixes in the Bundesliga,” now-Bayern Munich boss Julian Nagelsmann once said of his former Hoffenheim playmaker.
“(One) who is already running a bit under the radar. You rarely read anything about him.
“He still has a few things to work on, he knows that, I’ve told him that often enough. But he is an exceptional footballer and has an incredible gift for determining the rhythm of the game.”
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