Chelsea are now willing to pay £68m for 20-year-old defender who Newcastle wanted to sign

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Chelsea are now prepared to offer a big money deal for an exciting young defender who Newcastle United had previously identified as a transfer target.

Newcastle’s defensive record has been nowhere near as good as it was last season and Eddie Howe

may be looking to improve in that area in the summer window.

However, a new report from Record is claiming that one of their targets, Sporting Lisbon’s Ousmane Diomande, is being targeted by Chelsea who are willing to pay £68m to make the deal happen.

Newcastle set to miss out on exciting defender

At just 20-years-old Diomande has already shown the qualities it takes to be a top class defender and he still has so much room to grow as he looks destined for a big move at some pointe in the near future.

Newcastle had hoped that that move would be to Tyneside having first shown interest towards the end of 2023, but now it looks like their Premier League rivals are ready to swoop in on the deal.

Diomande is an ideal centre-back option for the modern era as he is very comfortable with having the ball at his feet and isn’t afraid of throwing himself into a strong challenge for his team.

The Ivorian defender prefers to play on the right which would have been ideal for Newcastle who already have Sven Botman on the left while Diomande could have been the long-term replacement for Fabian Schar.

Newcastle unlikely to match £68m offer

Given what we know about Newcastle’s financial situation an dthe fact they couldn’t even sign a first-team player in January it seems unlikley that they’d be willing to spend this much on one position,

Of course, we don’t know exactly how much there will be to spend and Newcastle do have the option of selling their own players to make room for some big name signings.

However, it sounds like they’re doing everything they possibly can to avoid losing the likes of Bruno Guimaraes and Alexander Isak, so it looks like they’ll be relying on whatever sponsorship and Champions League money they get.

Diomande is certainly still one to keep an eye out, but for the moment Chelsea look the more likely destination for the defender than Newcastle.