Newcastle United will likely have to spend big this summer.
Indeed, selling clubs know Newcastle are ambitious and have money to burn, albeit while under some Financial Fair Play (FFP) restrictions.
If the club are playing Champions League football too, we can surely expect some big-name players to arrive over the course of the transfer window.
One of those could be Declan Rice.
The England international has been tipped to leave West Ham this summer after publicly stating he is keen to test himself in Europe’s elite club competition.
Newcastle are just one of the clubs who have been linked with the midfielder but the Hammers will not make life easy.
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West Ham want Jude Bellingham money for Declan Rice
In fact, the east London club could demand what could be record money for the 24-year-old.
According to the Evening Standard, the Irons are ready to ask for a huge £120m for Rice, which would exceed the £106m Chelsea spent on Enzo Fernandez to break the British transfer record in January.
They are reportedly ready to use the kind of prices being talked about in regards to Jude Bellingham as a benchmark.
Arsenal and Chelsea are also said to be keen.
Hard to see Newcastle paying that kind of money
That price tag would double the £60m Newcastle paid to sign Alexander Isak in a club-record deal this summer.
While Rice, who Kieran Trippier has described as “unbelievable”, would be an eye-catching addition in an area Eddie Howe is light on at the moment, it’s hard to see the club spending so much on one player.
Perhaps that day will come but that would be the kind of superstar move the club just haven’t made in the PIF era thus far.
Champions League or not, it does not fit in with the kind of recruitment process we’ve seen since the takeover.