Newcastle United are in a two-horse race for the transfer of Lille defender Sven Botman, with an outcome to this long-running saga likely to come “very soon”.
That’s according to Fabrizio Romano in his latest column for CaughtOffside, with the transfer news reporter revealing that Newcastle have made a bid for Botman, though the sense seems to be that he would personally favour the move to Serie A giants AC Milan.
“My feeling from sources is that it’s just a two-horse race between Newcastle and AC Milan for Sven Botman,” Romano says.
“Newcastle have gone so far as to offer more than €36m guaranteed fee plus add-ons, while AC Milan know that Botman would like the Serie A move but do not yet have a full deal with Lille.
“Contacts are proceeding, very soon Botman and Lille will decide whether it will be AC Milan or Newcastle.”
Botman has impressed in Ligue 1 and it seems only a matter of time before he gets a big move, and it will be interesting to see what the final outcome of this two-horse race will be.
Newcastle have the money to bring in big names like Botman now, but one imagines it could still be a struggle to persuade them about the project when more established big names like Milan offer a better chance of immediate success.