Newcastle United transfer rumours: Magpies eye £25m Leeds United target as fee Magpies may have paid for Steve Bruce emerges

Indeed, A mysterious fee in Sheffield Wednesday’s latest set of accounts has caused plenty of intrigue – and could indicate how much Mike Ashley spent to bring Steve Bruce to Newcastle United.

It is suspected that Bruce, who swapped South Yorkshire for his boyhood club in July 2019, is the subject of a ‘Confidential Compensation Package’ totalling £6,475,000 included in the club’s accounts.

The fee, which would also include compensation for the services of his assistants Steve Agnew and Stephen Clemence, would represent the highest fee ever received by Sheffield Wednesday for a player.

Dr Dan Plumley, a football finance expert at Sheffield Hallam University, told the Sheffield Star on ‘Confidential Compensation Packages’: “Usually it’s linked to the early termination of contracts. More often than not, when you see higher numbers in this it’s a player or a managerial contract.

“We obviously don’t know the full details, as it is stated, it’s confidential. But normally these things are related to contractual obligations for players or managers.”

Bruce is currently under pressure at St James’s Park amid a poor run of form which has left Newcastle United in relegation danger.

The Magpies are just one point clear of the drop zone, albeit they have played a game less than Fulham in 17th.

But, as always, there is still plenty of transfer talk swirling around the internet this morning...

Here, we take a look at the rest of the transfer talk from Newcastle and their Premier League rivals: