Newcastle suffer major Bryan Mbeumo blow - David Ornstein 'exclusive' on Monday night

It looks like our hopes of bringing Bryan Mbeumo to St James' Park have suffered an early blow.

In a Monday night exclusive from The Athletic's main man David Ornstein, it's emerged that the Brentford star wants to join Manchester United instead.

Ornstein reports that Mbeumo has interest from Newcastle, Arsenal and Spurs, but the Cameroonian has indicated that a summer switch to Old Trafford is his preferred choice.

As a result, The Athletic reveals that Man Utd are now set to open talks with Brentford in a bid to strike a deal for right winger, who scored 20 Premier League goals last season.

What happens next from a Newcastle perspective remains to be seen, but I doubt we'll hang around if we know the player wants to go elsewhere and I back us to have plenty of exciting alternatives in mind, if we didn't already.

A frustrating turn of events and an early blow, it would seem, with this coming just a few days after fellow target Liam Delap chose a £30m move to Chelsea despite talks with Newcastle.

Mbeumo could've had Eddie Howe, Champions League football and link-up with Isak, Bruno and Tonali on Tyneside, yet it seems he favours a circus act in Manchester and no Europe, joining a project that has done little but make flops out of previously capable footballers in recent years.

A huge club no doubt who will pay huge money, it just seems like a strange move.