Newcastle to battle Chelsea for Brazilian youngster Gabriel Mec

Newcastle United are reportedly ready to go up against a familiar foe in the transfer market as Chelsea shows interest in Gremio forward Gabriel Mec.

Chelsea and Newcastle often end up going up against each other in the transfer market, and it has not gone well for the Magpies, historically, as Chelsea seems to have some kind of secret sauce that attracts players to Stamford Bridge.

Whether it has been for young players or talent to go straight into the first team, Chelsea always seems to manage to pip Newcastle to potential signings.

That's not putting the Magpies off, however, as a report from Sports Witness claims that the Premier League clubs are tracking Gremio's 18-year-old left-winger Gabriel Mec.

Newcastle eyeing the 'new Vini Jr'

The teenager has already broken into Gremio's first team and has picked up a couple of assists in his 17 senior outings.

While he's still pretty raw, his obvious talent is attracting interest. Gremio is aware and has moved to tie the youngster down to a new deal.

Those talks have stalled according to ESPN Brazil, and now the Brazilian club are coming to terms with the likelihood that they may have to sell Mec rather than risk losing him for free.

Gremio have outlined that they want between £12.9m - £17.2m for the player dubbed the 'new Vinicius Jr'.

Newcastle will have stiff competition

We're never confident when Chelsea are thought to be going for the same player as Newcastle, but with Ross Wilson as sporting director and his South American expert Thomas Federspiel on duty in that part of the world, things could start to turn in Newcastle's favour.

There's also interest from Brentford, Nottingham Forest and Liverpool from the Premier League, and we're sure there'll be interest from elsewhere too, so it won't be an easy move for the Toon to make should they decide to.

Right now, there doesn't appear to be a whole lot to this one; it seems to be a lot of speculation coming from the media in Brazil, so we're not getting too excited.

Rumour Rating: 3/10 - There's some credibility given Newcastle's scouting mission in South America, but at the moment, there's just not enough in this one to have us convinced.