Newcastle United have submitted a formal bid to sign England defender Kieran Trippier from Atletico Madrid.
Talks between the clubs are ongoing as Newcastle boss Eddie Howe looks to strengthen his squad in the January transfer window.
Howe has worked with Trippier before while in charge of Burnley. He signed the right-back from Manchester City in January 2012 after impressing during a loan spell at Turf Moor.
Trippier joined Atletico Madrid in 2019 after four years at Tottenham and won a league title last season. He was also named in the La Liga team of the year.
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The 31-year-old has made 19 appearances this season for Atletico, who have fallen 15 points behind city rivals Real after three successive defeats.
Trippier has won 35 caps for England and started in last summer’s Euro 2020 final against Italy, setting up Luke Shaw for an early goal.
Newcastle sit 19th in the Premier League with one win from 19 games this season and Howe will hope Trippier could help shore up a defence that has conceded 42 goals, the joint-highest in the league along with Norwich.
Southampton frustrated at late postponement of Newcastle game
Southampton have contacted the Premier League to outline their frustrations at the late postponement of their match against Newcastle.
On Friday afternoon the Premier League confirmed it had accepted Newcastle’s request to postpone Sunday’s fixture “as the club do not have the required number of players available for the match (13 outfield players and one goalkeeper)”.
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It is Newcastle’s second fixture in a row to be called off after Thursday’s trip to Everton was also postponed due to the number of Covid-19 cases and injuries in Eddie Howe’s squad.
Last Monday, Newcastle were only able to name eight substitutes, including two goalkeepers, instead of the maximum nine for their 1-1 draw against Manchester United, with the squad depleted due to injuries and Covid-19 cases.
They also lost Allan Saint-Maximin, Callum Wilson and Ryan Fraser to injury against United.
But Southampton are unhappy with the current lack of transparency around why games are called off and want full transparency in knowing which players are injured and how many of the squad have Covid-19.
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