Former Newcastle United player challenges club to target Manchester United and Real Madrid stars as Toon are made favourites to sign England ace

Here’s all the latest transfer gossip from St James’s Park:

Defender would be ‘great first signing’ for new owners

Former Sheffield Wednesday and England midfielder Carlton Palmer believes Burnley defender James Tarkowski would be a ‘great first signing’ for Newcastle and that he believes a lot of clubs will be sniffing around the centre-back.

Speaking to This Is Futbol, Palmer said: “I think a lot of clubs have looked at him,”

“I think he’s a very, very good centre-half. I think Burnley have stuck their marker down and they’re saying he’s not available for less than 50 million.

“I make them right when you look at other players that are going nowadays. If you’re saying Harry Maguire’s 90 million, then I’m sure he’s worth 45, 50 million of anybody’s money.

“The boy [Ben] White went from Brighton to Arsenal for 50 million, so I make Burnley right on that. Yeah, he’d be a great first signing for them.”

Toon ‘joint favourites’ for England star

Newcastle United have been made joint favourites, alongside Spanish giants Barcelona, to sign England star Raheem Sterling.

Earlier this week, Sterling revealed that he was open to leaving Manchester City in order to get more game time.

This has led many bookmakers to promote Newcastle as Sterling’s next potential destination as a ‘marquee’ signing for their new ownership, however, with no European football in sight, it is very unlikely that a move for Sterling will materialise.

Waddle’s high transfer hopes

Former Magpie Chris Waddle has set his sights high on the type of player Newcastle United should be targeting this summer.

Speaking to The Sun, Waddle listed just a couple of world-class players that he believes should be on the Newcastle wish list: “Paul Pogba’s out of contract isn’t he?

“Now people might say about Newcastle — but money talks. If they sell the dream about what we’re going to win and achieve, it might.” Waddle said.

“And then, do you raid the big teams? Your Bayern Munich’s and teams like that and say ‘we want him, we want him’.

“Test them. Could you get somebody like Eden Hazard out from Real Madrid? On loan even until the end of the season and then pay a fee.”

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