Newcastle United linked with FOUR as Mike Ashley and Steve Bruce slap £50m price tag on star man - round-up

Senior pairing Alphonse Areola and Kevin Trapp have failed to impress in pre-season, with the former performing poorly against Inter Milan on Saturday.

The report states the Magpies stopper is ‘targeted’ by the French champions, although there is no talk of negotiations between the two clubs – the Slovakia international played in every one of Newcastle's Premier League fixtures last campaign.

The Magpies could be set to swoop for £20m-rated Allan Saint-Maximin, who has been linked with a move to St James’s Park all summer, and £10m-rated £50k-a-week Everton man James McCarthy.

It’s also been reported that a move for Tottenham left-back Danny Rose is now off - however, Newcastle are haggling over a fee to sign 20-year-old PSG left-back Stanley Nsoki with Emil Krafth the Magpies second choice.

The Manchester Evening News claims Sean Longstaff is among the Reds' top midfield targets, but both Bruce and Mike Ashley have issued hands-off warnings to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Newcastle are thought to value the midfielder - who has made only nine Premier League appearances - at a whopping £50m.

"You never want to lose your best young players, and I think we've made it pretty evident that we won't," Bruce told Sky Sports, speaking after his side's 2-1 pre-season defeat to Preston.

"We're concentrating on Sean now, getting his knee right. It's his 10th or 11th training session since he hurt his knee.”