Newcastle United are interested in former Tottenham midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg as they look to replace Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali.
The experienced 31-year-old Danish international, who has 97 caps for Denmark, has been identified to help smooth the midfield transition. Though far from the headline signing Newcastle fans would have been hoping for, he knows the Premier League well and could provide a steadying hand for young additions Sean Steur, 18, and Aladji Bamba, 20.
Hojbjerg has been performing consistently well for Marseille, making 75 appearances and scoring eight goals for the French side in all competitions. He joined Marseille permanently last year, after an initial loan, for £17million and worked under Spurs boss Roberto de Zerbi. Newcastle had previously tried to sign him in 2022 from Tottenham for £30million.
Newcastle sport director Ross Wilson has been working through an extensive list of names. However, Wilson knows Hojbjerg could hit the ground running and provide Matthias Jaissle with another experienced head in the dressing room.
Midfield Targets and Guimaraes Transfer
Newcastle have previously enquired about Lucas Bergvall at Tottenham, Felix Nmecha at Dortmund, and Angelo Stiller of Stuttgart as they try to find the right blend for their midfield. Meanwhile, 28-year-old Guimaraes has been sold for £75million this week and will be confirmed as an Arsenal player over the weekend.
"We didn't want to sell him. It was a world record fee for a player his age," Wilson said. "What we had to weigh up was, very respectfully from Bruno with his behaviour towards us, very emotionally as well, effectively told us he wanted to leave and move on."
"That doesn't mean he can go but it certainly plays a part in what our thinking is when we hit a certain range of number," Wilson added. "But there's no part in saying it was part of our strategy and was in our thinking this summer - it wasn't."
"But we have got to be flexible and react to things that happen," Wilson said. "It might have been in our plan to sign one player but we didn't get him so we move on to another. We can only be honest about that."
