75% cheaper than Harrison: Newcastle 'ready' to make offer for 'very promising' 12 G/A winger

Newcastle United are poised to make a bid for Sochaux forward Alan Virginius, according to French outlet Le10 Sport (via Sport Witness).

The Daily Mail‘s Craig Hope has reported that the Magpies are likely to focus their funds and attention on signing a winger from hereon in the summer transfer window.

Virginius (19) is generally regarded as a left winger but is capable of operating on both flanks. The teenager, who has made 46 appearances in the French second tier, is now into the final 12 months of his contract with Sochaux.

The ‘very promising’ youngster Virginius is ‘close to leaving’ Sochaux, according to Le10 Sport (via Sport Witness). Newcastle are ‘ready to send’ an offer, setting up a ‘final duel’ with another of his suitors in Bayer Leverkusen.

The bid will likely be between €5m (£4.25m) and €10m (£8.5m), and it could then come down to the player to pick which offer is the ‘most convincing’.

Virginius certainly looks like an exciting prospect.

The teenager scored five goals and provided two assists in just 847 minutes of Ligue 2 football last season, averaging a direct contribution every two hours. His overall record for the club stands at eight goals and four assists in 50 matches.

He has perhaps been even more impressive on the international stage for France’s under-19s, scoring five goals and setting up seven in his first 14 caps. At the recent European Championships in that age category, he was on target three times and he teed up three goals during his nation’s run to the semi-finals.

In light of that contribution, InStat Index ranked him as the third-best player at the tournament, while football talent scout Jacek Kulig has billed him as a ‘huge talent‘, so this could be a very good long-term signing for