Report: Newcastle are interested in signing Chelsea midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko

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According to CalcioMercato, Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest are strongly interested in signing Chelsea midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko before the window shuts on Thursday.

The Magpies’ summer has been a good one so far. They brought in Nick Pope in goal, while Sven Botman and Alexander Isak became their marquee signings in defence and attack respectively. Now, it looks like Eddie Howe wants to strengthen his midfield.

Newcastle want to sign Chelsea midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko

If you’ve forgotten that Bakayoko is still a Chelsea player, we won’t blame you.

The French midfielder joined the Blues all the way back in 2017 – when now-Tottenham boss Antonio Conte was the Blues’ manager. Chelsea splashed £40 million to sign him (BBC), but it never quite worked out for him at Stamford Bridge.

Bakayoko played 43 times for Chelsea in his debut season, and that was that. The last time he donned the Blue in the Premier League was back in May 2018 – ironically, against Newcastle United in a 3-0 defeat on the final day of the campaign.

Since then, Bakayoko has been loaned out to Milan, Monaco, Napoli and then back to the red half of the San Siro again. The Rossoneri are obligated to buy him next summer if certain conditions are met, but the report claims that they have no interest in doing that.

Milan want to send Bakayoko back to Chelsea this summer, a year before his loan deal expires. The Blues will have to agree to that for it to happen, and Newcastle could be the ones to convince them.

The report claims that the Magpies, along with Monza and Nottingham Forest, are interested in signing Bakoyoko from Chelsea this summer.

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Bakayoko played just over 600 minutes of football in all competitions for Milan last season. He’s yet to play a single minute this term, which makes it clear that the Italian champions don’t fancy him.

A move away from the San Siro would be the best thing for Bakayoko and Milan, but whether Chelsea will allow the Rossoneri to get out of their loan agreement remains to be seen.

As for Newcastle, Bakayoko would be an interesting signing. The Magpies have a fairly settled midfield in Bruno Guimaraes, Joelinton and Joe Willock, and all three of them look really good when they play together.

Howe is unlikely to change that partnership in the middle of the park, but Bakayoko would be a very good backup in that number six position. However, with just two days left in the window, Newcastle will have to hurry if they want to get this deal done.