Newcastle United have joined the race to sign Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga winner Corentin Tolisso, according to Jeunes Footeaux, but the Frenchman looks set to join Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur instead.
There is only so far a big bank balance can take you.
Newcastle’s new Saudi Arabian owners found that out the hard way when bringing an overdue end to Mike Ashley’s decade of discontent at St James’ Park.
According to The Athletic, the Public Investment Fund approached Antonio Conte after putting Steve Bruce out of his misery in October.
Conte, however, was in a rather unique position. Few managers in world football can claim to have their pick of the clubs but, after guiding Inter Milan to their first Serie A title in a decade, the icey-eyed Italian was going to be shaken out of hibernation by a club stuck in the Premier League’s relegation zone, regardless of their new-found financial muscle.
Newcastle turned to Eddie Howe instead – well, after Unai Emery, Joachim Low and Xavi Hernandez rebuffed their advances – while Conte opted to wait for something bigger and supposedly better.
Something that arrived in the shape of Tottenham Hotspur a few weeks later.
Will Corentin Tolisso join Tottenham rather than Newcastle?
It remains to be seen whether Tolisso does something similar.
According to Jeunes Footeaux, Newcastle have come calling for a man who, back in 2017, became the most expensive player in Bayern Munich’s history following his £42 million move from Lyon.
The World Cup-winning France international will become a free-agent next summer. And, after turning down a chance to sign an extension, he looks increasingly likely to follow in David Alaba’s footsteps.
At this stage, however, Tolisso seems destined to join forces with Conte at Tottenham instead, as reported by Football Italia – though it is not certain at this stage whether Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is willing to hand the 27-year-old the £100,000-a-week contract he’s demanding.
£100,000-a-week is pocket change as far as Newcastle owner Mohamed Bin Salman is concerned.
But, after 13 trophies in four years at the Allianz Arena, would Tolisso really swap Robert Lewandowski and Joshua Kimmich for Joelinton and Ciaran Clark?
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