With the takeover of Newcastle United seemingly dead in the water, at least for the time being, the Magpies have to get cracking with acquiring any transfer targets.
There are just four more weeks until the 2020/21 Premier League season begins, and arguably clubs will have wanted to bed down their squads well before then.
To that end, and with an expected budget to be much reduced to what might have been available if the Saudi Arabian consortium had taken the reins from Mike Ashley, Steve Bruce has identified one particular signing.
Although he still has two years left on his current contract at Manchester United, Chris Smalling has fallen out of favour, as evidenced by his season-long loan to Roma during the 2019/20 campaign.
According to Sky Sports, the centre-back is Bruce’s top transfer target this summer.
The question over transfer fee could be a potential sticking point.
United surely won’t want to allow him to leave on the cheap, whereas Newcastle could point to the fact that Smalling isn’t a first-choice to drive down the price.