The Mail is reporting that Newcastle have again turned their attention to 22 year-old Celtic Croatian defender Jozo Simunovic this summer.
The shock Newcastle are finding this summer in the transfer market is that some of our targets are way over-priced and it’s a tricky situation since Rafa wants to bring in around eight first teamers and maybe over 12 players in total this summer.
Newcastle probably have up to £100M in cash in the transfer kitty plus any transfer fees Rafa and Lee Charnley can get from selling players with no futures at the club and there are likely to be a number of those.
22 year-old Celtic Croatian defender Jozo Simunovic
The 22-year-old Simunovic is a 6ft 3ins center-back who was very impressive last season and had a very good season and he improved throughout the season and played 33 times with one goal and two assists for the Glasgow powerhouse.
Newcastle are just one of a number of clubs interested in signing the 9 times capped Croatian U21 International who has played for all the Croatian youth sides from U14 through u21 and has 52 youth caps in total.
The transfer price of the player seems to be reasonable in today’s mad transfer world of escalating prices, with Celtic said to want at least £8M for their young center-back they signed from Dinamo Zagreb two years ago.
Here is a player who improved under Brendan Rodgers last season and could improve even more under world-class manager Rafa Benitez at Newcastle, so this lad could be a very good buy for us at somewhere around £8M.
Of course he doesn’t have any Premier League experience, so he would have to be slowly introduced into the Newcastle first team as next season progresses – but the speed at which he does that will be entirely up to the 22 year-old.
Spartak Moscow, Newcastle, Burnley and Huddersfield are all said to be interested in this player, but to us Newcastle United is by far his best bet of the four.
Yes – we may be a little biased there – just a wee bit.
🙂
But for £8M this 22 year-old could be a very good acquisition for Newcastle United.
What do you think?
Comments welcome.
4 comments so far
lochinvar
Jun 16, 2017 at 9:22 AM
Comment #1Acquiring plays such as Simunovic makes sense as he has the physical presence that we need and the ambition to keep proving himself at a higher level. Add in some experienced heads such and Leiva and Reina with young guns such as Perez and Aarons you can see the thinking.
We just need Captain Rafa to make it so.
RUNAWAY777
Jun 16, 2017 at 9:31 AM
Comment #2Here we go again repetitive story’s again ed find something knew sick of old news some on here say don’t worry about transfers as they have not started yet well i see them all the time on sky and now Everton have signed pickford for 30 million when clubs want players they go and get them what do we do talk about signings.
gazthehillbilly
Jun 16, 2017 at 9:45 AM
Comment #3Premier League experience being so important completely baffles me, maybe I am just stupid!
Literally hundreds of players have come to the premier league from abroad some really expensive and succeed or fail (Costa/Shevchenko).
Some cheap yet same outcome succeed or fail (Anelka/Sanoogo).
For every Boumsong there is a Van Dijjk.
If a player is good they can play football anywhere it’s all about coaching and tactics, Premier League football is not what “English Football” was there are very few English players or managers/ coaches for that matter, good scouting and planning can get a player who performs poorly in one system at reasonable price to suit perfectly another teams needs and style and bring their strengths and abilities to the forefront therefore making the player look a world beater! E.G: Marcos Alonso, played for S********d for f’sake, now one of the best wing backs in the league!
ToonHamster
Jun 16, 2017 at 10:01 AM
Comment #4I’m not an expert but I’m pretty sure that transfers don’t work this way. Surely, you have your main target who you either get or don’t get. If you don’t get, then you move onto option number 2.
I don’t understand a system where you’re constantly turning to targets in some sort of bizarre circle system, just in case.
I know that there’s ever changing situations in football but I don’t believe the way transfers are being reported in any way right now.