Tyneside Media Roundup: Hugo Ekitike, Moussa Diaby, Alexander Isak

This week, the transfer talk has heated up regarding attacking options in the Magpies' shortlist of potential additions. And we can confirm the names that have dropped across the media are far from those of your Average Joe and your typical John Doe.

Newcastle has seemingly entered Real Sociedad’s Alexander Isak sweepstakes, as reported by The Telegraph. Earlier this summer and spring, it'd been reported that NUFC might be enamored of the player, but not so much as to target the striker as they (seemingly) are doing currently. The Spanish club is, obviously, denying all reports involving a potential sale of the Swedish striker to Newcastle or any other club. The young forward is reportedly valued at around €45 million or more, a steep price to pay by Newcastle even if they can afford it due to the FFP limitations.

The transfer would probably trump all of the prior record figures spent by Newcastle in the past, and there is a feeling the new owners are a little bit skeptical of adding Isak even if Real Sociedad ever entertains offers for their forward, given the highly quoted amounts of money they’re demanding.

Another player that has been making it to the Newcastle-tinted rumor mill is Bayer Leverkusen’s winger Moussa Diaby. In a similar turn of events as the ones involving Alexander Isak, Leverkusen is not going to make things easy for Newcastle to add the talented forward, which is also highly valued by the German club. As reported by The Northern Echo, Bayer Leverkusen is seemingly asking for €60 million in exchange for their player, a figure the Magpies board is probably not going to pony up to get the lad.

Eddie Howe is happy with the club and the current players in the squad, but it’s been known for a long that the coach wants to bolster the offense. The good news for the Newcastle owners, though, is that Howe might be happy with adding just one player—be it a striker or a winger—without regard to his actual best role as long as he can be deployed on the final third of the pitch.

The drama over the signing of Hugo Ekitike seems to be over. The soap opera of his transfer has seemingly reached a point of no return for Newcastle after PSG agreed to the terms of the youngster's contract earlier this week. The problem for PSG now, though, is the fact that their offer to Stade Reims is seemingly lowballing the latter club—and of course, they know PSG has some money to burn.

Things are currently in limbo, of course, as NUFC’s offer seems to still remain on SdR’s table and is quoted at more than €30 million as agreed a few weeks back. The problem for Newcastle, though, was the seemingly impossible-to-deal-with agent of Hugo Ekitike, who is never pleased with the terms offered to the young lad (something that PSG has reportedly already solved).

With many more options available, of course at high prices, Newcastle is determined to move on from Ekitike and forget about all of the trouble he’s been causing for weeks.