West Ham are currently more likely than Newcastle to sign £40m winger now

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Europa Conference League winners West Ham are set for a cash windfall this summer and have their eye on a player that’s been on Newcastle United’s radar for a while.

West Ham had a night to remember last night lifting the Europa Conference League trophy following a 2-1 win over Fiorentina, but the big question on everybody’s lips was: Is it going to be enough to convince Declan Rice to stay for another year?

Apparently not with the England star heavily linked with a move to Arsenal. The Telegraph has suggested that a £92million move is very close and West Ham already have a chunk of that money spent in their minds with the report suggesting that they now lead the way in the race for Harvey Barnes.

Barnes was a bright spot in Leicester’s awful season

Harvey Barnes suffered relegation with Leicester City last season but performed well enough to catch the eye of several clubs including Newcastle.

Newcastle have been looking at Barnes and his teammate James Maddison for a while and both players were in the very small minority of Leicester players who could hold their heads up high at the end of the season.

It’s thought that Leicester value ‘lightning fast‘ Barnes at £40million but The Telegraph suggest that Leicester’s relegation could mean that interested clubs could try with bids closer to £30million.

Barnes notched 13 goals and three assists in 40 games for the Foxes last season which is definitely admirable in what was such a dire team for the majority of the campaign.

Newcastle have higher priority targets and could let this one pass

Newcastle’s interest in Barnes hasn’t really elevated beyond a whisper when compared to the much publicised pursuit of James Maddison, but the interest is there and now that West Ham look set to make their move, could Newcastle try and steam in and get there before the Hammers?

If Eddie Howe is serious about Barnes then the time to act is now, before any deal for Rice goes through as the Hammers will be heavily relying on that money in this summer’s window. Of course they’ll be backed up by whatever prize money they earned from lifting the EUCL trophy, but without that Rice deal they won’t be able to compete with Newcastle financially.

The 25-year-old Barnes would definitely be a good addition to Newcastle’s squad, but as things stand it feels like we have higher priority targets and this could be one we let go.