Arthur Atta bid lodged by Newcastle as Udinese shop for replacement - Report
Newcastle United have been linked with Udinese midfielder Arthur Atta a few times already this summer.
The Magpies' name gets thrown around a lot in transfer stories, and it's hard to pick out which ones are genuine and what's just journalists making stuff up or doing the bidding of agents.
Reports on behalf of agents seem to be a very common practice in Italy, so when Newcastle are linked with players in Serie A by Italian sources, we've always got our guard up.
However, the links to Arthur Atta don't seem to be going away, which is giving us food for thought.
Newcastle makes a bid for Arthur Atta
Already, Newcastle have been reported as reaching out to Udinese over a potential deal, and now TuttoSport is 'certain' that the Magpies have made an official bid for the Frenchman.
Reports have suggested Newcastle would be willing to pay £30 million for the 23-year-old, which is close to Udinese's valuation of £34.5 million.
Atta would be seen as a replacement for Sandro Tonali, who looks to be heading out the door this summer, with Spurs closing in on the Italian.
Udinese are looking for a replacement
Udinese are already looking at potential replacements, according to Il Gazzettino (via EuropaCalcio), targeting Cruz Azul’s Carlos Alberto Rodríguez Gómez, which could be a reaction to Newcastle's offer.
Arthur Atta is a defensive midfielder which Newcastle have been looking for for a long time now, and with the money we get from selling Tonali, it should allow us to scoop up Atta with plenty left in the budget for further additions.
Even though he's a CDM, Atta still contributed five goals and four assists in 32 appearances for Udinese last season, so he's obviously not shy in getting forward when needed.
We're not going to pretend we know a great deal about him or have ever seen him play, but he looks like an exciting proposition and if Udinese are really already hunting for replacements, then maybe there has been some movement.
