Newcastle eyeing Christian Kofane - New transfer claims from Germany

Newcastle United are ready to embark on quite the shopping spree using the money they are set to receive for the sale of Sandro Tonali to Tottenham Hotspur.

The Magpies managed to convince Spurs to part with £92.5m up front for the Italian, which is set to fund a squad overhaul at St James' Park.

Bazoumana Toure is already on his way, and Newcastle are thought to be working on deals for Lamine Camara and Johan Manzambi too, although there's still a long way to go before we can get too excited about either of those moves.

Meanwhile, Newcastle are now being linked with Bayer Leverkusen striker Christian Kofane after the player's agent had claimed there was interest back in April.

Newcastle is now linked with Christian Kofane

Kofane is being heavily linked with Arsenal too, which could make life very difficult for Newcastle, but German outlet Bild (via Bulinews) claims that Newcastle are monitoring the 19-year-old.

The Cameroonian forward bagged seven goals and nine assists in 44 outings in his first season in the Bundesliga, which caught the attention of the Premier League sides.

Bayer Leverkusen only signed the youngster last summer and are keen to keep hold of him a bit longer, but Bild claims that an 'exceptional offer' could get them to change their mind, with his value thought to be around €70m (£60m).

The rumour doesn't make sense to us

Not much of this is pointing towards a success story for Newcastle, is it? Arsenal, as our competition, already puts us in a tough spot. Leverkusen don't want to sell, a £60 million price tag is also likely to rule us out.

Perhaps most telling, though, is that a centre forward is far from being at the top of Newcastle's shopping list this summer. There may be scope to recruit a new striker, but not until the main positions have been filled.

A goalkeeper, a full-back, a central midfielder and a winger are the priorities, with the winger already inbound in the form of Toure.

We'd even say that an extra full-back and another winger would be more beneficial than turning attention to a striker right now. 

Rumour Rating: 4/10 - We just don't see how there can be anything more than a passing interest here for Newcastle.