Having already secured the signing of Sandro Tonali for Newcastle, Eddie Howe is wasting no time it seems in aiming to beef up the Magpies first-team squad.
With a Champions League campaign to add to their Premier League and domestic cup commitments, Newcastle are going to need some strength in depth if they want to be there or thereabouts at the business end of the competitions that they’ve entered.
To that end, it’s believed that the club are trying hard to secure the services of 20-year-old Southampton star, Tino Livramento.
If they’re successful in being able to get the right-back to move to the north east, that could spell the end of Harrison Ashby at the club, despite only signing with them at the start of the year.
According to inews, there are some Championship clubs enquiring after Ashby’s services and, given that he hasn’t yet made any inroads into the Newcastle first-team in any event, it could be a move that suits all parties.
There’s still a long way to go before that happens, however, given that the Saints want £30m for Livramento and inews suggest that the Magpies only want to pay around half of that amount.
The likelihood is that the two clubs will meet somewhere in the middle because Southampton could do with the money and Newcastle need the player.