Newcastle United told to pay €45m as they ‘fight’ Man Utd for Sporting Lisbon defender

According to reports, Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United are interested in Sporting Lisbon star Goncalo Inacio.

Newcastle were first linked with the centre-back earlier this week. 

Ignacio has been with Sporting Lisbon since 2012. He made his senior debut for the Portuguese side in October 2020.

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The 20-year-old has impressed for Sporting Lisbon. He has played 65 times for them across all competitions over the past two seasons.

Ignacio has represented Portugal at youth level. He has played twice for their U21s side since last year.

Correio da Manha (via Sport Witness) are reporting that Newcastle’s interest in Ignacio is ‘real’. It is said that they are ‘fighting’ Man Utd for the player’s services.

Clubs have been told that they will have to trigger the defender’s €45m release clause to get him this summer.

Elsewhere, Howe will speak to his players on Friday in a bid to avoid any fall-out from an interview in which Allan Saint-Maximin appeared to suggest he would be more effective in a better team:

“I saw the quotes, spoke with Allan. I think I need to make this clear that Allan’s quotes didn’t come across in the way he meant them to.

“He was concerned yesterday. We spoke and in no way did he mean to damage the team and the unity that we’ve built. Of course, he said things in an interview, but, as I said, it wasn’t in the context that he meant, although it happened.

“We will be speaking with the squad, and making sure there’s no fall-out from that, because unity has been our strength. It’s vitally important that we keep that at all costs.”

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