Newcastle United are interested in two outstanding central defenders from the same club.
Newcastle United are reportedly interested in not one, but two Crystal Palace center defenders.
They are 23-year-old 6ft tall Marc Guehi and 27-year-old Danish International Joachim Andersen.
Andersen has 23 Denmark caps on his name, whereas Marc Guehi has 6 England caps.
Marc Guehi is a self-assured player who leads both on and off the field: he can also bring the ball out of defense, like Fabaian Schar does so brilliantly at Newcastle.
Fabian occasionally decides to shoot when he is close to the penalty box, and he has scored some spectacular goals for Newcastle with this intrinsic ability.
Andersen is a ball-playing defender who can play on both the right and left side of the middle two, giving him some versatility.
He can even play defensive midfield, and an interesting fact from a few years back was that Milan midfielder Marcelo Brozovic was the only player in Serie A (2018) with more accurate long passes than Andersen, who was then with Sampdoria.
Newcastle might pursue both players in January and try to secure the best possible deal for one of them.
We need to get another central defender, preferably a young one, to complement our three current top center-backs, Sven Botman, Fabian Schar, and Jamaal Lascelles.
We also have Paul Dummett, Dan Burn, and the recently rehabilitated Emil Krafth at center-back.
Indeed, Lascelles and Dummett worked well together in the 1-0 Carabao Cup win over Manchester City, with Paul on the left side.
If we were still in the Mike Ashley era, I would have argued we have enough center-back cover, therefore there’s no need to bring in another central defender in January – save some money (as always).
But, as long as we stay inside the Financial Fair Play guidelines, our owners and head coach Eddie Howe want to improve the squad in every transfer window.
That’s OK.
It would not be surprising if we were able to bring in a center-back this January, allowing us to sell or grant free transfers to some of our long-term club employees like Jamaal and Paul.
They have given everything for Newcastle United, without a doubt, and they will be greeted with a heartfelt THANK YOU from our fans when these two young men depart the club.
And, because our next game is at home against Crystal Palace on Saturday (at a peculiar KO time of 3:00pm), supporters will be able to get a good look at these two defenders.
But let’s hope they don’t both have outstanding performances – we need all three points on Saturday – the Premier League remains our primary priority – and we need to be in the Champions League next season as well.
