According to Telegraph reporter John Percy, Newcastle United target Kristoffer Ajer is very close to joining Brentford.
The Celtic defender has been linked with the Magpies for a while now, but as time has gone on it has looked like a deal that Newcastle would struggle to complete.
And that looks like it will be the case, with Ajer seemingly set to join one of Newcastle’s new Premier League rivals.
Percy claims that Ajer is heading to Brentford for a club record fee of £13.5million.
That’s less than the fee that was reported earlier in the week, with The Athletic claiming Celtic wanted closer to £20million for Ajer.
Regardless, the Norwegian seems to have been out of our price range, which is a sad state of affairs.
Newcastle miss out on Brentford bound Kristoffer Ajer
The 23-year-old was first linked with Newcastle back in March, and it seemed like a move to St James’ Park was very possible.
It was even claimed in May that the Magpies were close to completing a deal.
Sadly, that didn’t happen. Since that point, talk of Ajer moving to the north east has actually died down.
First Norwich and Bayer Leverkusen moved ahead of us – now Brentford look to have gazumped everyone.
Based on the reported fee, however, Newcastle wouldn’t even have been able to afford Ajer.
The Daily Mail recently claimed that Steve Bruce only has £10million to spend, which is less than what Brentford are reportedly paying for Ajer.
It’s a blow for Newcastle and Bruce, who are desperate to sign a new centre-back.
Ajer could have been the perfect addition, but it looks we’ll be playing against him next season instead.
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