Newcastle United allegedly want Memphis Depay and have offered Barcelona a cash deal for the forward ahead of January.
A report from Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo claims that Newcastle have put €20million (£17.5million) on the table for Memphis.
It’s stated that Barcelona officials are working on a possible exit for Memphis in the January window.
Memphis is out of contract at the end of the season and seemingly isn’t interested in renewing his deal.
Barcelona therefore would like to sell Memphis in January before he can simply walk away from the Camp Nou for nothing.
Newcastle are thought to be very interested in Memphis but the Dutchman prefers to wait until the summer and pick a new club as a free agent.
That’s hardly ideal for Barcelona or Newcastle, with Memphis potentially putting himself first, even if it means sitting on the sidelines at Barca.
Newcastle surely aren’t paying £17.5million for Memphis
Newcastle may well be interested in Memphis but this one just doesn’t make sense.
The 28-year-old has proven himself to be a quality forward in his time at Lyon, and even his first season at Barca was positive with 12 goals in 28 league games.
Memphis even scored a lovely goal for the Netherlands against USA at the World Cup, again proving his goalscoring ability on the big stage.
Yet even if Newcastle felt that Memphis is the man for them – and we somewhat doubt that given that their approach has mostly been to sign players with sell-on value – then why pay so much for him now?
Memphis can move on for free at the end of the season and paying £17.5million to save a battle for him in six months just doesn’t seem like something Dan Ashworth would sanction.
We just can’t see Newcastle targeting the former Manchester United misfit at all, never mind for a hefty fee ahead of his contract expiring.
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