It seems Newcastle United are on the hunt for a new central defender.
After three first-team summer signings thus far, Eddie Howe has confirmed that he is on the lookout for another addition.
With options at the back not overly convincing behind Fabian Schar and Sven Botman, the bulk of the players linked with a move to St James’ Park are central defenders.
One of those is Joachim Andersen.
The Crystal Palace star has been linked with a move to Newcastle this summer and there is reportedly a hope on Tyneside that the Eagles will lower their £40m asking price.
Now, Palace boss Roy Hodgson has provided an update.
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Roy Hodgson says losing the likes of Andersen would be a bitter blow
Indeed, fellow Palace star and England defender Marc Guehi has also been touted as a target.
Still, the Selhurst Park club have already lost talisman Wilfried Zaha – another player linked with Newcastle – to Galatasaray.
With that in mind, Hodgson says losing any other key players would be a “bitter blow”.
Speaking on Friday, the former England manager said (via the Evening Standard): “It would be a bitter blow now if we had to start the season with other of our top players being tempted away from us, or other clubs coming in and persuading Crystal Palace to sell them.
“There is no desire to sell any of those players, and we cannot avoid speculation that other clubs will be interested in players of that quality.”
Newcastle’s hope might be misguided
Quite why Palace would lower their asking price for such a key player in Andersen is unclear.
Though they are reportedly eager to sign Odilon Kossounou from Bayer Leverkusen, Hodgson has already admitted that his squad is short on numbers.
To want to make life easier for Newcastle in signing one of their two first-choice central defenders does not make a huge amount of sense.
That of course does not mean the Magpies can’t move but to hope Palace make life easy seems somewhat strange.