Victor Munoz arrival could spell end for Harvey Barnes - Report

Newcastle United have set their stall out this summer by saying that they will sell players if they feel it will benefit the project.

Rather than being super protective over their star assets and causing disharmony like last year with Alexander Isak, the club is going the opposite way and if a player wants to leave, then leave they shall, as long as it's on Newcastle's terms.

Similarly, it seems that no player is safe. If the men in charge feel that a sale could benefit the club, then any player is fair game.

This has led The Chronicle to suggest today that should Newcastle be successful in the pursuit of Osasuna winger Victor Munoz, that could open the door for Harvey Barnes to leave.

Aston Villa are keen on Harvey Barnes

Barnes is being eyed by Aston Villa, who have the Champions League carrot to dangle in front of the ex-Leicester City man.

Harvey Barnes was in fine goal-scoring form for Newcastle last season and took his tally for the club to 30 in 120 appearances, which is an impressive haul considering he's always played second fiddle to Anthony Gordon.

Aston Villa feel Barnes' attacking nous will add a new dimension next season as they look to build on a very successful season.

We're not 100% sold on the idea

We're not sure we're on board with The Chronicle's theory here, though. Victor Munoz is being targeted as a replacement for Anthony Gordon. Allowing Barnes to leave too wouldn't solve anything, especially when the young Spaniard would need time to settle. 

The Magpies will still need to recruit another left-sided winger. We get that £40 million for a 28-year-old may not be a bad deal to do, but we feel that green-lighting that move without a replacement lined up would be way too risky.

Newcastle are being linked with plenty of wingers, for both flanks, and many of them are on the younger side, but are potentially first-team-ready, so the plan could be to land Munoz as the starting winger and have a younger player as a backup.

We'd prefer to keep hold of Barnes, especially in this scenario, but we're also trying to see the bigger picture with this new transfer strategy and are quite interested to see how it plays out, so if he ends up being sold, we're going to try and trust the process.