Blackburn Rovers are willing to sell Adam Armstrong for £16 million this summer, with Newcastle United set to target their former academy graduate even if they drop out of the Premier League, as reported by TEAMtalk.
After Saturday’s 3-0 defeat to relegation rivals Brighton, the Magpies have little choice but to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
There is now a very good chance that, come May, Newcastle will be counting the cost of relegation for the third time in the last 13 years.
The Tyneside giants bounced back at the first time of asking in both 2010 and 2017, however, winning the Championship title on both occasions.
And, if they do join Sheffield United and West Brom in dropping down into the second tier, bringing Armstrong back to St James’ Park would do their chances of an immediate return to the promised land of the Premier League no harm at all.
Armstrong, who has also been linked with Everton and West Ham recently, has scored 19 times for a mid-table Blackburn outfit this term; a tally only bettered by the promotion-chasing Ivan Toney and Teemu Pukki.
Tony Mowbray’s Rovers will sell their star striker for £16 million and you would imagine that Armstrong, a Tyneside-born 24-year-old who idolises Alan Shearer, would jump at the chance to pull on those iconic black and white stripes again.
The former Newcastle starlet made just 21 appearances for his boyhood club before being sold by Rafa Benitez in 2018. The phrase ‘unfinished business’ comes to mind.
Interestingly, TEAMtalk suggests that Newcastle will still try to sign Armstrong if they drag themselves out of the mire and secure their top-flight status by the skin of their teeth.
Whether the Blackburn talisman can find net so regularly in the Premier League, however, remains a mystery.
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