£ 7million man seen as ‘dream’ signing for PIF at Newcastle, talks have already started
According to Gianluca Di Marzio’s Grand Hotel Calciomercato website, Sven Botman is considered a dreamer by Newcastle owners.
What is the story?
Well, Italian media believe the Saudi Newcastle owners are in love with the € 8million (£ 7million) defender and dream of his arrival.
The Grand Hotel Calciomercato believes that Botman is ready to leave Lille to take a new step in his career, although he will not arrive until 2020.
This bodes well for Newcastle, although there is still plenty of competition for the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Amanda Staveley.
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Grand Hotel Calciomercato adds that Inter Milan, Juventus, AC Milan, Atalanta, Rome and Napoli are also interested in the Dutchman.
According to Duncan Castles, Newcastle have already opened talks.
The 21-year-old helped Lille beat Paris Saint-Germain to the Ligue 1 title last season and continued their strong performance this season with 15 appearances in all competitions.
Interestingly, former Southampton defender Jose Fonte, who played with Virgil van Dijk and Botman, believes Newcastle’s target is better than the Liverpool colossus.
Newcastle set to put Sven Botman’s interest on ice
Surprisingly, Newcastle still haven’t hired a director of football to help Eddie Howe in the transfer market in January in a few weeks.
However, if we were in charge of the DOF tasks in St James’ Park, we would probably be looking for a different profile than Botman this winter.
The Netherlands Under-21 international is a real nugget, which has already sparked the interest of Liverpool and Jürgen Klopp.
Therefore, we don’t know if it’s worth concluding in January, but more for the summer if Newcastle remain in the Premier League.
The Premier League is notoriously difficult to adapt, even more so in a society plagued by COVID-19.
At just 21, Botman might take a while to settle in, and the Magpies can’t afford to waste time facilitating new hires – they need to have an instant impact.
If he struggles and Newcastle breaks down, his reputation means he won’t run out of offers and likely to jump ship immediately.
Of course, this is all speculative, but it looks like it would be a repeat of Andros Townsend’s situation in 2016.
Indeed, Newcastle would simply give Botman an apprenticeship in the Premier League if he arrived now.
It would be much safer to pursue him once survival has been secured by experienced Premier League players.
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