Lesley Ugochukwu emerges as Newcastle target amid Lamine Camara change

As we neared the start of the summer transfer window, Lamine Camara was a name we were seeing regularly linked with Newcastle United.

It was believed that the Monaco star was Newcastle's top priority to strengthen Eddie Howe's midfield and that a move would be made when he had wrapped up his World Cup involvement with Senegal.

Camara was a key figure in his country's exit from the competition after Senegal blew a two-goal lead to go to extra time with Belgium, only for Lamine Camara to give away a penalty with just minutes left to go before a penalty shootout. Youri Tielemans stepped up and slotted home, sending Senegal packing.

However, now that Camara's involvement in the World Cup is over, it's becoming more widely reported that Newcastle are not pursuing the 22-year-old.

Newcastle turn their attention to Lesley Ugochukwu

Craig Hope has echoed the news first put out on the Pod on the Tyne podcast that Newcastle were unlikely to get Lamine Camara, and now The Chronicle has corroborated the follow-up to that, which is that Newcastle are keen on Lesley Ugochukwu of Burnley.

The 22-year-old defensive midfielder joined Burnley last summer for £24 million but was unable to stop the Clarets from dropping out of the Premier League.

Ugochukwu made 38 appearances in all competitions for Burnley last season and even chipped in with three goals and two assists.

Galatasaray are thought to be keen on the Frenchman, but Newcastle could be ready to join the race. Ugochukwu is represented by the same agency as Eddie Howe, which could make things go a bit more smoothly.

What did Lamine Camara do wrong?

We do wonder what changed with Lamine Camara. One minute he was all Newcastle ever wanted, and now suddenly there's no interest. He wasn't that bad at the World Cup, was he?

It's hard to properly evaluate how good Lesley Ugochukwu is given that he was playing in such a rotten Burnley side. It would be easy to excuse him for playing poorly as he was in a poor team, but at the same time, if he stood out, you could easily say he only did so because everyone else was so bad.

We imagine that Burnley will be looking ot make money on any sale of Ugochukwu, though, so he's very likely to cost Newcastle more than £24 million, although probably not a great deal more. We're probably looking at around £30 million-ish.