According to The Telegraph, Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah has emerged as a potential signing for Newcastle United this month.
The 22-year-old forward is out of contract in the summer, and he’s widely expected to leave the Gunners in the not too distant future.
Nketiah had been strongly linked to Crystal Palace, but after Callum Wilson went down with an injury, the Magpies are in the market for a new centre-forward.
The striker has been touted as the next big thing for quite some time now, and he’s been proving his credentials at youth level for years at this point.
In fact, Nketiah is the all-time leading goalscorer for the England U21s, breaking a record set by none other than Alan Shearer.
Upon breaking Shearer’s record, Nketiah was directly compared to the Toon legend by then England U21 boss Aidy Boothroyd.
“If you look at Alan (Shearer) and the career he had and Harry Kane and the career he is having – where Eddie is concerned, if he can get to the point where, like those two players, he’s in on goal and you just know he is going to score, that’s when you make the step from young player to senior player,” Boothroyd said.
“He’s not quite there yet but he’s not far off. The fact he’s in the company of those players that I’ve mentioned shows how much I think of him and how much we think of him in the system.
“He is destined for some big things. He has an aura of responsibility and leadership about him. He is a natural. He is very professional as well.”
Of course, Nketiah is nowhere near Shearer’s standard yet. After all, he only have five Premier League goals to his name.
However, at the age of just 22, he has a lot of room to grow – let’s not forget, when Shearer was 22 he was still at Southampton where he wasn’t exactly lighting the league up.
With just six months left on his deal, Nketiah could be a bargain signing for Newcastle, and he’s apparently a player they’re looking into.
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