Newcastle 'willing to offer' £30m for Arthur Atta - Report

A central midfielder is thought to be high on Newcastle United's transfer priority list this summer.

There are plenty of rumours suggesting that Joe Willock will be sold in the upcoming transfer window, but regardless of whether the former Arsenal man finds a new club or not, it seems like the Magpies are keen to add to their midfield options.

The primary midfield trio of Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali and Joelinton rarely played together at all last season. Jacob Ramsey took a while to adapt to his new surroundings, but eventually became a good backup option, while Lewis Miley spent a lot of time on the sidelines through injury or covering at right-back.

Willock failed to impress whenever he was deployed by Eddie Howe, so an alternative is definitely needed.

Newcastle are ready to bid for Arthur Atta

According to reports in Italy, Newcastle are keen on French midfielder Arthur Atta, who currently plies his trade at Udinese.

Il Messaggero Veneto (via UdineseBlog) claims that the Magpies are willing to pay €35 million (£30 million) to land the 23-year-old following an impressive season in Serie A.

However, they also claim that Brentford and Bournemouth are also keen to land Atta and are willing to pay the asking price for the midfielder who racked up six goals and four assists in his 34 outings this season.

We're not convinced just yet

Fulham had a bid turned down for Atta in January, but don't appear to be back in the running this time, despite there being a greater chance that he'll be on the move.

We are taking this one with a huge pinch of salt, given that the story originates from Italy, and our experiences with Italian publications' loose relationship with the truth.

However, more reputable sources have picked it up and reported on it since it appeared on Sport Witness, so there could be more to it.

As much as we need a midfielder, this one has just come out of nowhere, and we're not too convinced there's a lot to it. But we've been wrong before, so we thought it might be worth a mention.

Rumour Rating: 3/10 - Questionable source and a lack of solid information make us sceptical. It could just be early days, though.