Newcastle United have added competition for Dutch centre-back Sven Botman after French reports suggest that Paris St-Germain have entered the race to win his signature.
The Magpies have their bid at the ready for Botman who wants his future sorted before heading away on holiday at the end of the week. Newcastle have been trying to take advantage of AC Milan's takeover certainty by insisting to Botman's agent they are ready to do business now.
A report in L'Equipe in France says that PSG are also prepared to pay a €40million asking price for Botman. Although, for the second time in 48 hours, the Dutchman's agent insisted that nobody has moved ahead in the battle to sign the highly-rated Lille star.
Newcastle are eager to add a centre-back to their ranks this summer with sporting director Dan Ashworth briefed with the task to improve the heart of the defence at United. Were Newcastle to succeed in bringing in a new centre-back it will be intriguing to see how Ashworth and Eddie Howe deal with club captain Jamaal Lascelles.
Lascelles has been linked with a move back to his old club Nottingham Forest this summer. But vowed at the end of last season that he wanted to remain on Tyneside.
And that is still believed to be Lascelles' first choice - to fight for his place. Lascelles posted pictures on Instagram of himself wearing the new home shirt for next season and he is committed to the club.
When asked about Lascelles in May, Howe had said: "You can very easily fall into your own psychology or thinking if you are disappointed or not playing and you can let it affect you negatively. "He didn't. He elevated his captaincy and was brilliant on the pitch and excellent off the pitch."
Howe had Dan Burn and Fabian Schar as his first choice centre-backs for most of last season. Newcastle are understood to have an interest in Nathan Ake but have been quoted a fee of £50million.
