Newcastle United have reached a critical stage of the transfer window and are prepared to go all guns blazing in order to secure some new signings.
While they have signed a new right-back and a new striker, and are reportedly close to signing Lyon midfielder Bruno Guimaraes, the club still lack players in a number of areas which still need to be overhauled.
Defensive recruitments have been The Magpies priority all month. And after failing in attempts to sign Sven Botman and Diego Carlos they are now targeting players a little closer to home, with Brighton centre-back Dan Burn the subject of an initial £8m bid.
Daily Mail North-East football correspondent Craig Hope has reported that Newcastle will be going back in for the 6ft 5″ defender who can play left back and centre-back.
Newcastle going back in for Dan Burn & also told still hope of signing Leverkusen left-back Mitchel Bakker #nufc https://t.co/nDi1rD3AdC
— Craig Hope (@CraigHope_DM) January 26, 2022
He also reports that they will be approaching Bayer Leverkusen left-back Mitchell Bakker.
Bakker joined the German side from Paris Saint-Germain last summer, and has appeared in 16 games in all competitions, despite injury seeing him miss a month and a half of action.
While Bakker is a relatively unknown quantity for English football, with no doubt most Premier League who are aware of the 21-year-old knowing him from his Champions League exploits, Burn is a player who has become well known during his time at Brighton in the Premier League.
The sight of such a tall player playing at wing-back is something many people do not expect to see but Burn has made it his own. His ability to play there and be equally as good in either a back five or back four makes him a smart bit of business.