Newcastle United have made a fresh move for Jesse Lingard and have offered Manchester United £10m to loan the England midfielder for the rest of the season, 90min understands.
Newcastle and Man Utd have been locked in talks for most of January and as yet the two clubs have not come to agreement, but the Magpies have now made an offer that they expect to be accepted.
And while it is only a loan, it could technically see Lingard bring down the curtain on his United career as his contract at Old Trafford expires in the summer.
A loan would see Newcastle take over Lingard’s contract. However, they would need to more than double his wages and make him the highest paid player at the club to get the deal done, as we revealed earlier this month.
Even if United accept Newcastle’s offer, the decision ultimately remains with Lingard and that is the real issue.
Lingard has already shunned interest from the likes of West Ham and Tottenham this month as he was looking to either earn a new deal at United or let his contract run out and see what the best option for him would be.
He will still be allowed to run down his deal, but Newcastle are hoping he will do so in the North East rather than North West.
Newcastle are ready to offer Lingard around £150,000-a-week for the rest of the season, plus a huge bonus if he keeps them up and there will be no commitment on his side to stay, although there will be a contract offer for him.
Should Newcastle fail to bring in Lingard, we understand that the Magpies have held talks in the last week about possible deals for Tottenham’s Dele Alli and Chelsea’s Ross Barkley.
Newcastle are still working on all aspects of their squad, and were bolstered by the win at Leeds over the weekend.
They remain in talks for Sevilla’s Diego Carlos – who is their number one target in central defence, and the player’s agents arrived in Spain over the weekend to try and get the deal over the line.
They are also looking at Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno, although that deal is reliant on the north London club finding a replacement, while a left-sided defensive option is something manager Eddie Howe really wants and they are looking at finalising a deal for Bayer Leverkusen’s Mitchel Bakker.
A transfer for Reims’ highly-rated young forward Hugo Ekitike has stalled in recent days, but we can confirm that they are in talks with Atalanta striker Duvan Zupata.
The 30-year-old is understood to be keen on the move, and Newcastle have proposed an £8m loan fee with an obligation to purchase for another £30m if they stay up. The Serie A outfit are considering the transfer and sources have told us a deal is ‘likely’.