Newcastle United are hesitant to pay more than £12million for on-loan West Bromwich Albion striker Salomon Rondon, according to the Daily Mail.
The newspaper claims that the Magpies don’t want to exceed the aforementioned price for the 29-year-old, despite his release clause being set at £16.5million.
Rafael Benitez’s side are in the market for a centre forward this summer, but Rondon’s age means that they are unwilling to exceed their valuation for the 72-cap Venezuelan international.
Newcastle are willing to pay a substantial fee for a striker, but want there to be significant re-sale value on whoever they bring in. They’ve previously made enquiries about Hoffenheim star Joelinton, but his £45million price tag is likely to be too much for them.
OPINION
This isn’t exactly what the Newcastle fans would have wanted to be reading regarding their team. Rondon has been a smash hit at St James’ Park this season and is clearly extremely well suited to the style of football Benitez wants to play at the moment. It seems that if it was up to the manager then Rondon would be signing permanently as soon as the summer transfer window opens. However, it’s looking unlikely that that will happen. The club obviously have a figure in their head of how much they want to spend on a player who will be 30 in September. You can see why that’s the case, but in Premier League terms what is an extra £4.5million really? That’s chump change for a top flight side. Only Mike Ashley and, possibly, Daniel Levy would make a meal out of that relatively tiny sum. However, the club are sticking their guns here, and that will likely mean no Rondon on Tyneside next season.
