Newcastle United hold ‘serious interest’ in Man Utd target as Toon ‘willing’ to pay £60m for PL star

Newcastle United will be hoping to keep pace with the Premier League title race when the top flight returns next week. The Magpies are one of several clubs back in action on Boxing Day, and could move up to second with a win over Leicester City.

For their part, the Foxes lie 13th, but have won four of their last five matches. But before they play host to the Toon Army, there is still plenty of Premier League transfer speculation to work through. Here is our roundup of Tuesday’s top flight rumours...

Leeds United will ‘push on’ to sign Club Brugge winger Noa Lang ‘soon’, according to journalist Dean Jones. He said: “They want to avoid that disappointment of suffering on someone like Gakpo and missing out on them and then seeing them linked with every big club in Europe, basically, the same thing will happen with Noa Lang. He’s got massive potential and is already doing really well, so I would expect them to push on with that soon.” (GIVEMESPORT)

Arsenal and Newcastle United have ‘serious interest’ in Cody Gakpo, as do Manchester United. Leeds United remain in talks over signing the PSV Eindhoven forward as well, with the forward valued at around £50 million. (Mirror)

Leeds United are said to be moving with ‘vehemence’ for Morocco midfielder Azzedine Ounahi from French outfit Angers. The player is also a long-term target of Jose Mourinho’s AS Roma. (AS Roma Live)

Arsenal are among the suitors for 21-year-old Palmeiras midfielder Danilo, but have cooled their interest somewhat in favour of chasing Leicester City’s Youri Tielemans. However, Danilo remains a potential summer target. (90min)

N’Golo Kante is ‘in advanced negotiations’ to leave Chelsea, and is said to be ‘in a hurry’ to sort out his future. The 31-year-old is understood to be in talks with Barcelona, and is keen to agree a pre-contractual agreement in January, but is also said to be fielding interest from Juventus, among others. (Sport)

Newcastle United are ‘willing to pay’ £60million to take Leicester City star James Maddison to St James’ Park, according to Dean Jones. He said: Generally, they’ve been pretty careful with their spending. But they did splash out on Isak and they spent over £60million on him. I’m told that they would be willing to pay that for Maddison.” (GIVEMESPORT)

Everton winger Anthony Gordon is close to pledging his immediate future to the club by signing a new long-term contract. The Toffees are in the process of finalising a deal and hope to make an announcement shortly. Midfielder Alex Iwobi is also close to signing a contract extension. (Telegraph)

Brighton chief executive Paul Barber has admitted that it will be difficult to keep Alexis Mac Allister at the club after his World Cup winning exploits with Argentina. The Albion chief said: “He will be sought after, we’re very aware of that, but we hope to keep him here as long as we can. Of course, when staff and players do well, as we’ve seen in the last few months, they do attract the interest of other big clubs. These are clubs that are wealthier and have the chance to give players a new level, we understand that and we’re not naive to that.” (BBC Sport)