Ashworth "looking" at Newcastle deal for "clever" £75m gem, he can be Howe's own Salah - opinion

An update has emerged regarding Newcastle United‘s interest in Moussa Diaby heading into the summer transfer window…

Sky Sports reporter Dharmesh Sheth has claimed that the Magpies are “looking” at both Watford’s Ismaila Sarr and the Bayer Leverkusen flyer as Dan Ashworth attempts to bolster the squad for the 2022/23 campaign.

It was reported by The Sun in March that the Toon were willing to spend around £50m on Diaby, who is valued at around £75m by his club.

One of the stars of the 2021/22 Premier League campaign was Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah, who ended the season with the joint-most goals and the most assists in the top flight.

Ashworth can now find Howe his own version of the Egypt international by securing a deal to sign Diaby from Leverkusen this summer.

The Frenchman’s current team-mate Kerem Demirbay previously lauded the 22-year-old, saying: “He’s not only very quick but also a very clever player and you don’t see that very often in the Bundesliga.”

The rapid winger could be an excellent addition to Newcastle’s squad by making a huge impact in the final third after a sublime campaign in the Bundesliga.

FBRef list Salah as the most similar player to Diaby in Europe’s top five leagues, and it is easy to see why when you look at their statistics for their respective clubs.

From this graphic, you can see that both players are able to score and set up goals on a regular basis and create a high volume of ‘big chances’ for their team-mates.

However, Salah seemingly had better service from his team as he missed 12 more ‘big chances’ whilst also scoring 10 more goals. Interestingly, Diaby scored 5.2 more non-penalty goals in the Bundesliga in comparison to his non-penalty Expected Goals and Salah scored exactly one