Newcastle identify French winger as January alternative to £60m duo

Newcastle identify French winger as January alternative to £60m duo - Report

by Olly Hawkins · 12 December 2024, 16:21

The January transfer window is edging closer and it's widely accepted that we are crying out for the arrival of an exciting new right-winger.

The time has come for an upgrade on Jacob Murphy and Miguel Almiron to arrive and reports suggest that this area of the squad will be bolstered next month.

Earlier this week, The Telegraph's Luke Edwards revealed that PSV's Johan Bakayoko is high up on our list of targets, but another name has cropped up today via anoter North-East journalist.

Monaco star on Mitchell's radar?

As revealed by Mark Douglas at the i, Monaco star Maghnes Akliouche is another right-sided attacker on Newcastle's radar ahead of the January transfer window.

The 22-year-old Frenchman is someone Sporting Director Paul Mitchell knows well following his time with the Ligue 1 side and he'd certainly tick boxes as a talented young winger with bags of potential and a quality left foot.

Douglas reports that Newcastle are unlikely to meet the £60m price tags slapped on fellow targets Bryan Mbeumo and Antoine Semenyo, with both demanding a Premier League premium following their impressive form at Brentford and Bournemouth.

The same report confirms that Bakayoko has admirers on Tyneside and suggests that we could look overseas for a new right-winger, with the 21-year-old PSV star and Akliouche both talented options who are not only younger than Mbeumo (25) and Semenyo (25 next month) and likely to cost considerably less than £60m.

Akliouche a big talent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdMQlLKaGUI&ab_channel=BrazilScout

The tall and talented wide man featured six times at the recent Summer Olympics, having previously represented France at U23, U21 an U20 levels.

Akliouche scored in the Olympics final - which ended in a 5-3 win for Spain - and he's taken that form into the 2024/25 season for his club.

The Monaco Academy graduate has bagged four goals and four assists so far this term, scoring in their 2-1 win over Barcelona in the Champions League and starting in their 3-0 defeat to Arsenal last night.

Compared to someone like Mbeumo, who has proven himself in the Premier League for a few seasons now, it's a risk. But he'd probably cost half the price, is three years younger and may represent the sort of PSR-friendly signing Mitchell wants to push us towards moving forwards.