Newcastle United are a bit closer to finding out how much James Ward-Prowse is going to cost this summer.
With Southampton officially suffering relegation to the Championship, it is all but certain that Ward-Prowse is going to be sold.
An exit from St Mary’s looks likely, and the 28-year-old has been linked with a switch to St James’ Park.
Newcastle are reportedly interested, while Toon defender Kieran Trippier has even joked about the prospect of playing alongside Ward-Prowse on Tyneside.
It could come down to price, and a report has claimed that the Magpies are waiting to discover how much the Saints want for their captain.
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Southampton definitely want more than £25m for Ward-Prowse
While his price tag remains unknown, the Daily Mail report that Southampton believe he is at least worth more than £25million. That is the amount they turned down from Aston Villa, who made an approach last year.
The Saints reportedly still believe that they can get a bigger fee than that, but how much bigger remains to be seen. More than £25million is slightly vague – £26million is more, but so is £50million.
He is probably worth somewhere in the middle, which would give clubs like Newcastle a difficult decision to make.
Ward-Prowse is obviously a talented midfielder – ‘unbelievable‘ in the eyes of former teammate Oriol Romeu – but is he better than what Eddie Howe has currently got? Arguably no, so the club might be uncertain about spending a large portion of their transfer budget on an understudy.
Of course, the squad needs to improve, but Newcastle still need to be careful with their spending – even if they do qualify for the Champions League.
As we have said before, it will all come down to the price with Ward-Prowse. However, if Newcastle thought they could grab a bargain and get him for £25million or less then they can think again.