Newcastle United 'not letting up' in shock bid for former Manchester City star
The latest news from St James Park as Newcastle United prepare to return to action after the international break.
Newcastle United reportedly remain keen to secure an ambitious deal for a Bayern Munich star - despite being met with sizeable demands.
The Magpies are currently formulating their plans for the January transfer window after a series of meetings between the St James Park hierarchy. Following their unsuccessful bid to sign Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi, a centre-back remains on the agenda and a further push to sign the England international has not been ruled out. However, a winger also remains high on the list of priorities and there was a late and ultimately unsuccessful offer made for Nottingham Forest star Anthony Elanga during the final hours of the summer transfer window.
Newcastle have been previously linked with a shock move for former Manchester City winger Leroy Sane, who will enter into the last six months of his current deal with Bundesliga giants Bayern in the new year. The 65-times capped Germany international is yet to commit to a new contract and Bild journalist Christian Falk has claimed the Magpies will not give up in their attempts to land Sane despite what are likely to be sizeable personal demands.
He told the Bayern Insider podcast: “Newcastle United are not letting up on Leroy Sane, is that true or not true? That’s true. We were the first to mention it here, Newcastle’s interest in Leroy Sane, it will be difficult to finance because Bayern would have to put a really bad offer on the table. He earns €20m-a-season, estimated of course.”
Former Newcastle United coach praised by Elliot
Rob Elliot has described former Newcastle United goalkeeper coach Andy Woodman as a ‘mentor’ as he settles into life as manager of Crawley Town.
The former Magpies keeper left his role as manager of United’s National League neighbours Gateshead earlier this month after accepting an offer to take charge of the League One club after enjoying a highly successful one-year reign at the International Stadium. Elliot led the Heed to their historic FA Trophy Final win against Solihull Moors in May and become only the second Gateshead manager to secure a National League play-off spot - although thoughts of promotion into the EFL were ended as the International Stadium failed to meet the criteria to compete in the play-offs.
After making a positive start to the season, Elliot was the subject of interest from Carlisle United - but it was Crawley that secured his signature and the former Magpies star has revealed he turns to his old goalkeeper coach for advice as he takes his latest step in management.
He told SussexWorld: “I speak to Andy Woodman a lot. He was obviously my goalie coach and mentor when I was at Newcastle, and he was manager at Bromley and done really well, so I speak to people like him who’s had a bit more experience. Really just being open and speaking to people because you learn from anyone in any walk of life, and I think people being in situation themselves, you try and lean on them a little bit and try to get some advice, but you also got to have fresh eyes judge things as you see it because you don’t want to pre judge any person.”