Newcastle United have not yet made an offer for reported transfer target Charlie Austin, according to the Daily Mirror.
The newspaper claimed on their news and transfer centre [02/08; 07:54] that the Southampton attacker is in limbo having been told that he is free to leave the south coast club.
The Chronicle reported last month that the 30-year-old is on a list of players that manager Steve Bruce and managing director Lee Charnley are discussing.
The former Queens Park Rangers man has scored an impressive 148 goals in 324 games in his Football and Premier League career [Source: Transfermarkt], yet he has received no offers of a move away from the St Mary’s Stadium.
OPINION
Austin is a quality goalscorer and has been for the better part of a decade at various level of the Football League pyramid and up into the top flight with QPR and now Southampton. However, his form for the latter has never threatened to replicate what he produced with the former. Austin’s time on the south coast just hasn’t gone as well as anyone hoped, with injuries and poor form contributing to manager Ralph Hasenhuttl’s decision to allow him to leave this summer. It’s really no surprise at this stage of the game that no-one has made a bid for the Englishman. However, if anyone was to go all out for him it would undoubtedly be Newcastle. Bruce needs to bring in some attacking reinforcements as soon as possible after the loss of Salomon Rondon, Ayoze Perez and Joselu. Having said that, Austin should be a last resort for the Magpies on deadline day if they can’t bring anyone else in.
