Football transfer rumours: Newcastle to sign Rúben Neves and Sadio Mané?

A s far as transfer strategies go, Newcastle snatching Rúben Neves on a two-year loan deal would be a shrewd if controversial move. The Portuguese midfielder has only just left Wolves after a seven-year shift with the ink barely dry on his £47 million contract with Al-Hilal in the Saudi Professional League. It’s not thatEddie Howehas convinced the Saudi club to tear up the legal document. He may not have to; both Newcastle and Al-Hilal are owned by PIF, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia.

The Magpies are also closing in on a move for Milan’s Sandro Tonali, the 23-year-old midfielder with a £60m price tag. Negotiations stalled after an initial £50m bid was rejected but the move now looks secure and would match the club’s record signing of Alexander Isak, who joined from Real Sociedad last season. Newcastle could bolster their Champions League squad further still with a move for Sadio Mané, who has been deemed surplus to requirements by Bayern Munich.

Chelsea were also in the hunt for Tonali, with the London club stuck at the centre of a transfer vortex with numerous potential deals swirling around them. Mauricio Pochettinois offloading a ton of top talent with Mateo Kovacic – who is on the verge of joining Manchester City in a deal worth £30m – the latest player out the exit door alongside N’Golo Kanté, who has agreed to join Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia for silly money once his contract expires next week. If the Neves story is anything to go by, though, we could yet see the World Cup winner back in the Premier League.

Kovacic has some hefty shoes to fill as Ilkay Gündogan, City’s treble winning captain, is off to Barcelona on a free transfer. The 32-year-old has been sensational, and his form in the later part of