Newcastle launch €10m bid for Sergej Levak - Report

As the transfer window is now open, we're expecting to see more and more stories around Newcastle United with regard to incoming and outgoing transfers.

While Sandro Tonali's future has dominated the headlines lately, it seems that Newcastle has been busy looking for incomings.

After signing Ewen Jaouen already, Newcastle are thought to be edging towards the signing of winger Victor Munoz from Osasuna to replace Anthony Gordon, who was sold to Barcelona.

Meanwhile, reports from Italy are suggesting that Newcastle have been bidding for a young player from Atalanta in recent days, albeit unsuccessfully.

Newcastle have had a bid rejected for Sergej Levak

Italian outlet Tuttomercatoweb claims that the Magpies have seen a €10m (£8.7m) bid rejected by Atalanta for Sergej Levak.

The 20-year-old Croatian midfielder has been playing in Serie C for Atalanta Under-23s, where he's managed to catch the attention of several big clubs.

Sassuolo were thought to be putting together a bid before Newcastle saw their offer dismissed, as Atalanta don't want to sell.

Levak has been compared to Nemanja Matic and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic for his strength and style of play. It's believed that Atalanta are expecting big things from the youngster, hence their reluctance to sell.

A bid already? Unlikely

In all honesty, we highly doubt that Newcastle have made a bid for Levak already if this is the first we're hearing about our interest in him.

That's not to say there's no chance that we're interested. He's young and highly rated, which is exactly what Ross Wilson is looking for, but if £8.7m isn't going to swing the deal, Newcastle may have reservations about pushing much further.

It's a big fee for a 20-year-old who has been playing in the third tier in Italy and is thus untested at a higher level. 

His profile sounds interesting, being compared to Milinkovic-Savic and all, but the story just seems to be a few steps ahead of itself.

Rumour Rating: 4/10 - If the first we're hearing about this lad is that we've bid for him already, then we're inclined to not believe the story. Hopefully it could develop into something, though.