Newcastle officials travel to watch €60m target as interest continues – Sky Italy

After a very disappointing and draining fortnight of transfer news on Tyneside, are things finally starting to change? They need to.

The double whammy of losing out on Hugo Ekitike and potentially Alexander Isak was a new low for fans this window, which has gone from one setback to the next.

Interest in Yoane Wissa and Benjamin Sesko continues, with the former being particularly driven to join us this summer. However, there are fears Sesko is more likely to join Man Utd.

Moving to centre-backs, reports in Italy suggest another long-term target continues  to be watched closely.

Atalanta star still on Newcastle radar

According to Sky Italy’s Gianluca Di Marzio, Newcastle are still showing signs of interest in signing Atalanta defender Giorgio Sclavini.

Our interest in the Italian international stretches back years, even before he endured some serious injury woes, with the centre-back missing a big chunk of last season due to an ACL issue.

Di Marzio reports that Toon scouts were recently in attendance for Atalanta’s 1-0 friendly win over their U-23 side, in which Scalvini played the first half.

Nothing’s concrete at the moment with our approach, with Di Marzio noting that no offer has been sent nor discussions made with the Bergamo-based side just yet.

Scalvini also won’t be cheap, as even though he’s been touted to leave if a €60m bid arrived, his importance to Atalanta ahead of their own upcoming Champions League campaign can’t be understated.

A positive sign of our future transfer activity?

Fans have been crying out all summer for the club to continue searching for bargains and hidden gems in Europe compared to shopping exclusively within the Premier League.

And this Scalvini news makes for promising reading that we’re finally going back to our 2022 approach in signing the likes of Bruno Guimaraes and Sven Botman.

However, with less than three weeks until our season opener against Aston Villa, we’ll want to act quickly if we are serious about signing him, as Howe always likes to give new signings time to adjust.

It would also be ideal to act quickly before linked club like Man Utd, Spurs or Chelsea get involved, though one would hope that latter’s agreement with fellow defender Jorrel Hato could deter them from making a move.