Newcastle United are understood to be closely monitoring the situations of two Premier League defenders in the form of Leicester City’s Wout Faes and Nikola Milenkovic of Nottingham Forest.
With the contracts of current defenders Fabian Schar and Dan Burn both due to expire in 2025, the Magpies are undecided on whether to offer them new deals, leading to them looking elsewhere for potential solutions in that area of their squad, CaughtOffside understands.
Sources have named Faes and Milenkovic as two players Newcastle like after monitoring them closely in recent times, though neither player would come cheap.
CaughtOffside have been informed that Leicester would likely set an asking price of around €40m for Faes, while Forest want at least €50m for Milenkovic, who only recently joined them from Fiorentina.
It remains to be seen if Newcastle can negotiate those fees down, but it is felt that there is a desire to pursue these players as priorities for Eddie Howe’s defence.
Will Newcastle be able to sign Wout Faes or Nikola Milenkovic?
One factor in Newcastle’s favour with Faes could be that the 26-year-old Belgium international was understood to be considering his Leicester future this summer, even though he ultimately ended up staying at the King Power Stadium.
It could be that that will make it slightly easier for Newcastle to pursue a deal in the future, while Leicester have also had some financial issues that could put them under pressure to accept something a bit lower than their current asking price.
Milenkovic, by contrast, might not be keen to move again after only making the move to Forest this summer, though it could remain a situation to watch out for in the months ahead, with both these clubs also likely to be under pressure to stay up in the Premier League if they are to hold on to their most important players.
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