Newcastle considering offer for £68m “monster”

Remember when it felt like very little was happening with Newcastle United in the summer transfer market?

That’s changed. For better or worse, chaos has erupted on Tyneside over the past few weeks, with the £55m signing of Nottingham Forest’s Anthony Elanga the precursor to a flurry of transfer-related activity that has yet to reach an outcome.

Alexander Isak wants to leave the club and sign for Premier League champions Liverpool, who last weekend saw a £110m bid rejected for the Sweden international. However, he has since returned to United’s training facilities, his future uncertain.

Such an offer would have been insulting were it not so blatantly an unsettling tactic, and the gravity of the situation weighs heavily on Eddie Howe, who at least is buddied with Sudarshan Gopaladesikan, United’s new technical director and successor to the contentious Paul Mitchell.

Dealing with the unwanted sale of Isak, arguably the Magpies’ best player, marks a testing start for Gopaladesikan, but he certainly seems to be making the most of a bad situation, pushing full throttle for a fitting replacement.

Newcastle pushing to sign striker

There’s a bleak sense that Isak, 25, will play Premier League football in red for the upcoming season, though his sale to Liverpool, of course, hinges on Newcastle signing a suitable successor at number nine.

And the first-choice target is RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko, with a formal offer already lodged. What comes next is unknown; the Slovenian is assessing his options with Manchester United ready to table a bid of their own.

Should Sesko wind up at Old Trafford, it will feel like yet another blow for the Tynesiders, who have faced their share of rejection across the past few months. That said, there’s an alternative forward who might end up being the better pick.

According to Portuguese journalist Eduardo Burgos, Newcastle have revived their interest in Porto striker Samu Aghehowa, and while they have yet to make an offer, Howe’s transfer coterie have been monitoring him across 2025.

The Liga Portugal giants will hold out for €80m (equating to £68m), putting him in the same ballpark as Sesko.

So then, which one to go for?

Why Newcastle should sign Samu Aghehowa

Aghehowa is a 21-year-old centre-forward who left La Liga and joined Porto from Atletico Madrid in a bargain deal worth €15m (about £13m). The Madrid-based side retained a whopping 50% sell-on clause.

Curiously, Chelsea had agreed a £34m deal for the powerful goalscorer, only for the move to collapse and for him to join Porto for a cheaper fee.

He’ll be grateful for that turn of events, no doubt, for the past year has been one of fundamental development for Aghehowa, whose maiden campaign with the Portuguese giants yielded 27 goals and three assists across 45 matches in all competitions.

As per FBref, the 6 foot 3 powerhouse ranked among the top 14% of strikers across Europe last year for goals scored per 90 (0.71), which certainly bodes well for his future success as a goalscorer at the forefront of the global game.

Newcastle might want to consider raising their interest higher still, as Aghehowa could even turn out to be a better signing than Leipzig’s Sesko.

Sesko is unquestionably a talented forward with prowess lying in his athleticism and power. That said, he’s raw, and there’s no telling as to whether his potential will be reached.

A detractor could argue that Samu plies his trade in Portugal, regarded a division of inferior quality to the Bundesliga. Although it’s clear that the Porto talent has an aptitude for scoring goals on any field of green, for he previously did well in La Liga, netting nine times across 35 games in his breakout term, and bagged six times across last year’s Europa League campaign too.

Aghehowa’s league goals alone placed him above all within or beneath his age bracket across Europe’s major leagues, and that includes Sesko, who has since turned 22.

And it’s not as if the former Chelsea target hasn’t made his mark against those competing on English shores. After all, he bagged a brace against Man United on the continental stage last year, winning five aerial duels and covering much ground besides.

Given that Newcastle need a striker who will promise goals with consistency, it might be worth switching focus to Aghehowa, who is shaping into quite the formidable focal frontman, sinewy and tall and clinical in the danger area.

Football talent scout Jacek Kulig has remarked in the past that the Spaniard is a “monster in the making”, and with similar strengths in physicality and ball-striking, who could truly argue that Sesko has the higher potential, given that he’s yet to truly announce himself as a prolific marksman?

With 27 goals and seven assists across 64 Bundesliga outings, Sesko has a lot to prove, but he’s a big talent, for sure, and Howe has the tactical nous and interpersonal skills to will him toward elite status.

Just imagine what the acclaimed manager could do with Aghehowa leading his Magpies line.