PIF sent members of Newcastle United’s recruitment team to watch defender Sven Botman during Lille’s Ligue 1 draw with Metz on Friday night, The Chronicle’s Lee Ryder says.Â
The lowdown
Centre-back Botman was a ‘priority target’ for Newcastle during the January transfer window.
They tabled a ‘series of bids’ but, while the player was open to joining, they couldn’t persuade Lille to part with their £27million-rated asset (Transfermarkt).
Newcastle wound up signing another centre-back – Dan Burn from Brighton and Hove Albion – but it seems their interest in Botman remains.
Lille played out a goalless draw with relegation-threatened Metz, leaving them ninth in Ligue 1 ahead of the remaining weekend fixtures.
The latest
Ryder tweeted on Friday night that ‘NUFC scouts [were] watching again’ at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy.
He suggested that they would have been impressed by a ‘tidy performance’ from the Dutchman at the heart of the defence.
The verdict
Ryder was clearly liking what he saw, so what did the stats say about Botman’s display?
Well, his SofaScore rating of 7.3/10 was the second-highest in the Lille side, behind only Jonathan Bamba (7.7).
He won all five of his aerial duels, made four clearances, blocked a shot and completed 89 of the 101 passes he attempted – an accuracy of 88%.
You’d suspect that, on the back of this strong outing, Newcastle are even more determined to land the 22-year-old when the summer transfer window opens.
In other news, Newcastle are plotting another exciting appointment.