Atalanta CEO Luca Percassi has dismissed reports linking Teun Koopmeiners with a potential £50 million move to Premier League giants Newcastle United.
The man nicknamed ‘RoboKoop’ over in Italy has certainly been in, if you will allow us, rather arresting form of late.
Is there a more underrated midfielder in Europe? Perhaps not, even if Teun Koopmeiners is threatening to go from ‘hipster’s favourite’ all the way to the mainstream, Tuttomercatoweb reporting that Newcastle United had a representative in Italy to watch the towering Dutch international in the flesh recently.
Koopmeiners is reportedly valued at around £50 million.
But Atalanta CEO Luca Percassi, when quizzed about the rumours, had little interest in giving anything away, responding with a blunt, firm ‘No’ when asked if he had heard anything from England regarding a big-money deal for the former AZ Alkmaar captain (DAZN).
Newcastle United scout Teun Koopmeiners
Koopmeiners, a deep-lying midfielder by trade but one with an eye for goal, has been in outstanding form since the turn of the year. He even scored a Serie A hat-trick against Monzo late last season, capped with an ‘extraordinary’ lob from miles out.
“Now there are many players (at Atalanta) who make the difference,” former La Dea coach Bartolo Mutti told Tuttomecatoweb. “Like Koopmeiners, who is the best midfielder in the league.
“(He is) always present in every area of the pitch.”
Sandro Tonali replacement?
Liverpool have also been linked.
Newcastle, however, are all-but certain to be in the market for a new midfielder in January after losing Sandro Tonali to a long-term ban. Ruben Neves of Al-Ahli feels the most likely acquisition as things stand, however, Newcastle benefitting from their Saudi Arabian connections.
Neves, who left Wolverhampton Wanderers in a £47 million deal just last summer, is reportedly open to the idea of an immediate return to England, potentially joining Newcastle on an initial loan deal.
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