Atletico Madrid now eyeing move for Nick Woltemade - Report

Newcastle United's record signing is a target for Spanish side Atletico Madrid less than a year after joining the Magpies.

Nick Woltemade arrived at Newcastle for a club-record £69 million last summer and, after a strong start, faded as the season went on.

His lack of form inspired plenty of stories that the German striker could be sold by Newcastle in the summer after failing to integrate after one season.

Eddie Howe has dismissed these rumours, and Nick Woltemade has been speaking from Germany about his season at Newcastle, and he seems determined to kick on next season as a Newcastle player.

Atletico Madrid are eyeing Nick Woltemade

However, there's no denying that a potential sale after just one season makes for a good story, and Spanish outlet Diario AS have claimed that Atletico Madrid are keen to rescue Woltemade from his Tyneside nightmare.

AS claims that Woltemade is for sale this summer and would cost just €65 million (£56 million) or could even be available on loan. That figure is reportedly what Newcastle will demand should anyone make a bid for the 24-year-old.

They also claim that Aston Villa could be willing to meet Newcastle's demands as part of their summer plans.

Newcastle could cut their losses on Nick Woltemade

Honestly, there was a time when we thought that Newcastle would cut their losses on Woltemade and look to move him on, but we started to see improvement from the big German in the final few games of the season. Eddie Howe was also impressed with the forward's progress once regular training days returned to the schedule.

We feel it would take considerably more than £56 million to convince Newcastle to give up on their huge investment. We also feel that the idea that Aston Villa are in a position to fork out so much for a player when they're potentially having to cash in on Morgan Rogers to satisfy UEFA's financial restrictions makes no sense.

Woltemade didn't address his future directly in his recent interview with German media, but he also didn't come across as someone who was desperate for a way out of his current club.

It could still go either way for Big Nick, but we're backing him to stay for at least another season.