Championship side Bristol City have slapped a £30million price tag on Newcastle United target Adam Webster, according to the Bristol Post.
The newspaper claims that Lee Johnson’s team have settled on a valuation which they feel will deter all second tier teams and only the most genuinely interested Premier League outfits.
The Magpies are one of just several teams thought to be in the hunt for the 24-year-old, with Aston Villa, Leicester City, Everton, Southampton, Burnley and Watford also eyeing the centre back.
The 6ft 2in Englishman [Source: Transfermarkt] made 47 appearances for the Robins last season and is seen as one of the finest defenders in the Championship.
OPINION
Well, this surely puts Newcastle out of the running, you would have thought. The Magpies are expected to have a decent-sized transfer budget by their standards this summer, but it’s still hard to envision them splashing out £30million on one player, especially a defender. In all honesty, the team are pretty well stocked at centre half. They already have Fabian Schar, Jamaal Lascelles, Florian Lejeune, Federico Fernandez, Paul Dummett and Ciaran Clark who can all operate at the heart of the defence. Even if one or two of them move on this summer, it’s unlikely that the club would spend this amount of money on a centre back who is unproven at Premier League level. Webster is an excellent defender who has proven himself to be one of the very best centre halves in the second tier, there’s no doubt about that. However, this is just too much money to expect Newcastle to sign him for a position where they are already overly-stocked.
