Newcastle have confirmed they have made offers on two players in the amount of £4m each. While they have been reluctant to provide confirmation of the actual players, based upon description it would appear that the Magpies are targeting Ligue 1’s Stéphane Mbia of Stade Rennais and Albin Ebondo of Toulouse.
For followers of Newcastle, the offer on Stéphane Mbia should come to no surprise as they have went down this round before. The twenty-two year old Cameroonian international is a very talented young player but it is debated whether Rennes would allow him to go for £4m.
Joe Kinnear said of the offers:
“We’ve made two serious offers for decent money. When I say decent money, two £4m offers for two players. They’re considering them now. We made the bids today (Wednesday).
“We’ll probably end up spending, at the moment, about £10m but the two players I’ve offered for are £4m each.”
“The players that go out would be extra. That would be extra on top of what I’ve got.”
“I identified the two players that we wanted, told them the price of the two players and (Mike Ashley) agreed to get them providing they accept the offers and whatever is on the outgoing players would add to that as well.
“So with the outgoing players I would hope to be nearer £10m than £8m. We’ll find out tomorrow on the two players coming in.
“I’m very optimistic about it. One of them is very crucial for us at the moment. He plays for Cameroon. He’s a decent player. He’s 6ft 2ins, he’s pacy, he’s powerful and I just thought he would add something else to us.
“I explained who it was to him (Ashley) and we got on the case and we’ve spoken to the club that he plays for. So we’re just keeping our fingers crossed that they accept it.”
