Big claims from Portugal - Newcastle in €50m battle with Bayern for star centre-back?

Newcastle United are continuing to look to the continent for transfer business, but again face competition from one of Europe’s elite sides.

Our pursuit of Abdukodir Khusanov was brought to a prompt end when Manchester City entered the race for the Uzbek centre-back. We now seem to be ready to battle Bayern Munich for our latest target on our continental scouting mission.

Talk of Marc Guehi arriving on Tyneside has gone quiet, but it seems other overseas options are being seriously considered as we look to land a young option to eventually replace Fabian Schar.

Portuguese press claim Toon are in transfer battle

As we reported earlier this week, a Newcastle scout was said to be in the stands to watch Sporting Lisbon's 1-0 win over Porto earlier this month.

A few days later, the same Portuguese outlet, A Bola, have a front-page story claiming Newcastle United are battling Bayern Munich for Lisbon defender Ousmane Diomande.

The 21-year-old has been regularly linked with a big mov away after breaking through the ranks at the Portuguese giants two seasons ago. Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool are also said to be admirers.

It isn’t the first time our interest in Diomande has been reported. This competition and our further scouting of the centre-back appears to have forced Bayern’s hand into pursuing a January move, so we may have to be quick if we don't want to miss out to the Bundesliga side.

Mitchell moving on from Khusanov and Guehi?

It seems sporting director Paul Mitchell has moved quickly on from the Abdukodir Khusanov setback who is expected to be announced by Manchester City over the coming days.

The Marc Guehi saga is ongoing, although he seems unlikely to move this month. The Englishman is now being targeted by Chelsea, but the fact the Blues have recalled Trevoh Chalobah from Crystal Palace suggests Guehi is staying put, for now.

Guehi proved out of our budget last season, though he is believed to be available at a more favourable price this summer with the end of his contract looming in the back end of June 2026.

Nevertheless, it is refreshing to see our list of targets is expansive and that we seem unlikely to be forced to pay an inflated fee for a player when others of a similar mould are available. Mitchell certainly isn’t resting on his laurels and seems set to attempt to get our affairs in order before the summer.