Newcastle actually had great chance to sign 23-year-old Chelsea player if they bid £50m

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Newcastle United have now been told that they could have secured one of their summering signings had they bid £50m in the transfer window.

Even prior to the suspension of Sandro Tonali and the injuries to Joe Willock, Joelinton and Sean Longstaff, Newcastle had been on the lookout for another new midfielder.

Conor Gallagher was a big target for Newcastle in the summer as the England international’s future at Chelsea was uncertain, and a new report from The Telegraph now confirms that a £50m bid would have been accepted by the Blues.

Newcastle opted for Tonali instead

Newcastle evidently had the chance to sign Gallagher in the summer who was made available by Chelsea, but the Magpies were unlikely to sign two players in the same position for over £100m, largely thanks to FFP.

There’s still questions over Tonali and whether or not he will end up being a smart piece of business, but one thing is for certain when comparing the two and that’s that Gallagher would have been the more useful asset for this campaign.

Due to his gambling ban, Newcastle won’t see Tonali in a black and white shirt until August at the earliest which was a huge blow at the time and remains a huge blow with so many key injuries.

The Italian is still only 23-years-old, so he has plenty of time to prove himself as a quality player, though Eddie Howe will now be wishing he had Gallagher available to him at the moment.

Gallagher ran the show for Chelsea last night

Although they had been losing the game until the very last moments, Chelsea had some good spells in the match that usually came through Gallagher who was putting in a great performance against Newcastle.

Despite signing two players for a combined fee of over £200m in the last year in Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez, it is actually the Chelsea academy graduate who has been one of the few stars of the team this season.

Howe will no doubt have been watching the 23-year-old control the game last night wondering what could have been had he secured the midfielder, but maybe he will get another chance to sign him in the future.