Newcastle United’s potential deal to sign Hoffenheim striker Joelinton could rise to £47.6million, according to Bild.
The German outlet claim that the Magpies have paid an initial £39.5million fee, a deal which would see the 22-year-old smash the previous transfer record at Newcastle.
Bild report that based on the Brazilian forward’s potential success at St James’ Park, add-ons could take the deal upwards of £47million.
A potential transfer worth up to £47.6million would smash their previous transfer record, which was set in January with the £21million deal to sign Paraguayan international Miguel Almiron from Atlanta.
Newcastle have been reported by journalist Graeme Bailey to be ready to wrap up the deal in the next couple of days.
OPINION
Newcastle are the only Premier League club not to sign a player so far in the transfer window, but signing Joelinton would be a massive signal of intent from Mike Ashley. To reportedly more than double the club’s transfer record definitely supports the Sky Sports claim that Bruce will be given upwards of £90million to spend. In all honesty, it will most likely take a lot more than that to rebuild this Newcastle squad, who were horrendous in their Premier League Asia Trophy drubbing against Wolves. With no manager having started pre-season with the squad, they looked tactically out of their depth and massively unorganised. After losing their two top scorers in Ayoze Perez and Salomon Rondon, who scored more than 50% of the goals scored at St James’ Park, the Magpies were crying out for a forward – with only Dwight Gayle and Yoshinori Muto as their recognised strikers. Joelinton will bring physicality as well as flair, with the Brazilian being involved in a goal every two games in his 30 appearances last season. The 22-year-old also averaged 1.5 key passes per game on top of winning 2.7 aerial battles every 90 minutes [WhoScored]. Those stats highlight his all-round capability to lead the line to great effect next season. Steve Bruce must not stop there and look to bring in options that are more than capable of supporting the 22-year-old next season.
