Newcastle have brought in one player – Christian Atsu from Chelsea for £6.2M so far this summer – and therefore there are a lot more players to arrive at Newcastle this summer.

The news is that Rafa wants to increase the competition for places in almost every single position at Newcastle and he’s like to bring in a goalkeeper, back four players, central midfielders as well as strikers and wingers.

One area where we need strengthening is at full-back and we had some news yesterday that Newcastle were reportedly keen to sign 25 year-old French right back Kevin Malcuit.

25 year-old Saint-Etienne right back Kevin Malcuit

And there’s news today that his club Saint-Etienne have put a price tag of €10M on his head – and that’s around £8.7M in today’s exchange rates.

Rafa will want to bring in maybe two full-backs this summer to compete for a first team for next season in the Premier League.

We were first linked with 25 year-old Saint-Etienne defender Kevin Malcuit back in early April, when there were reports coming out of France that Magpies boss Rafa Benitez was keen to sign the right-footed defender.

We have also been linked with 23 year-old Leeds left-back Charlie Taylor for over a year now and he’s a free agent this summer, but because he’s come through the Leeds Academy, Leeds will want decent compensation for their player.

But it doesn’t look like Rafa is interested in the player we were linked so heavily with last summer.

The news over the last couple of days is that Burnley are in advanced discussions to sign Charlie Taylor and West Brom are still very interested in the accomplished left-back and have been for the last year.

The fee is said to be around £5M and is it just us – or is that a very good deal for a player who has played entirely in England for a number of years?

Lille have put in a bid of around €7M (£6M) for Malcuit, but the player is reported to be very keen to move to England.

Other full backs Newcastle have been linked with this year include Arsenal players Carl Jenkinson, Calum Chambers and Kieran Gibbs.

As we said Newcastle will likely sign two full backs  this summer (the sooner the better) and players like Jesus Gamez, Achraf Lazaar and Massadio Haidara can then leave the club either permanently or on loan to reduce the wage bill.

What do you think?

Comments welcome.