Real Madrid could complicate Newcastle's pursuit of Jacobo Ramon - Report

Newcastle United have been linked with a move for Spanish centre-back Jacobo Ramon from Italian side Como.

Como defender Jacobo Ramon has become a target for Newcastle, according to The Athletic, as we covered on Tuesday.

However, The Chronicle believes a deal for the 6'5" defender could be very complicated.

Real Madrid hold all the cards with Jacobo Ramon

As The Chronicle report, there are a couple of clauses in Jacobo Ramon's contract with Como that could drive the price up for the 21-year-old.

As well as a whopping 50% sell-on fee, Real Madrid also inserted a buy-back clause in his contract, which is active this month.

If Newcastle were to make an approach, Real Madrid could activate their option to buy Ramon back for just £6.9m; then they could decide whether to keep hold of him or take over the sale, much like it's expected Inter Milan will do with Aleksandar Stankovic. 

The clause activates in June for the next three years with an increase in value each year, but still gives the Spanish side the opportunity to bring him home for a cut-price fee as they felt he had plenty of potential when he left.

We don't see this one happening

Whether or not Madrid would opt to activate the buy-back clause, the fact that they have a 50% sell-on clause too also means that Como are likely to drive the price up to make sure they receive a fair cut of the deal.

Given that a centre-back isn't a priority position for Newcastle, we don't expect them to really push so hard for either Ramon or Scalvini. Unless we somehow still have over £50 million in the budget after we bring in a goalkeeper, a couple of full-backs, a winger and a midfielder, then we just don't see this happening.

All of this is not to mention the fact that Como will be participating in the Champions League next season, so Newcastle will already find it hard to convince Ramon to leave the Italian side to forego his shot to play in Europe's elite competition next season.