Contact made - Newcastle in for £18m-rated defender even though he got 'murdered' by Ekitike

Newcastle United have ‘gathered information’ about Lyon centre-back Jason Denayer, according to Belgian outlet Het Nieuwsblad (via Sport Witness).

Denayer will be familiar to British football fans, having had spells at Manchester City, Celtic and indeed Newcastle’s arch-rivals Sunderland earlier in his career.

In 2018, he left Man City permanently to join Lyon in a deal worth £9m, but the contract he signed upon his arrival at the Groupama Stadium expires at the end of the season.

That means he is currently free to negotiate pre-contract terms with clubs outside of France.

The report from Het Nieuwsblad (via Sport Witness) stated that Newcastle have made contact with Denayer’s representatives ahead of the summer transfer window.

The £18m-rated Belgian is ‘spoiled for choice’, with the likes of Barcelona, Juventus and Napoli all expressing their interest, and while he is ‘not in a hurry’ to select his next destination, remaining at Lyon is described as a ‘worst’ case scenario.

What are Denayer’s credentials? He has 33 caps for Belgium – the world’s top-ranked nation – under his belt, including two starts at last summer’s European Championship.

From a statistical point of view, he stands out for pass completion (ranking in the 98th percentile when compared to other centre-backs in the top five European leagues), but it’s worth noting that he isn’t the most ambitious on the ball (20th percentile for progressive passes). His average of 2.1 blocks per 90 minutes (88th percentile) suggests that he is something of a warrior at the back.

In December, he faced off with another reported Newcastle target in the form of Reims’ Hugo Ekitike, who left him for dead and scored a last-minute winner in that game. European football expert