Newcastle hoping for triple boost in transfer market

LONDON: Newcastle are hoping for a triple transfer boost this week as head coach Steve Bruce re-shapes his squad ahead of the new Premier League season.

The Magpies kick off the campaign at West Ham on Saturday and will hope to have three more new faces available after a series of breakthroughs over the weekend.Bournemouth striker Callum Wilson arrived on Tyneside on Sunday evening to undergo a medical after the two clubs agreed a fee in the region of £20million.

Aston Villa are understood to have tabled a higher bid for the England international, but withdrew from the race when the player indicated his preference for a move to Tyneside.The PA news agency understands Wilson’s former Cherries team-mate Ryan Fraser, whose contract at the Vitality Stadium expired at the end of June, is also expected to head for the north-east in the next 24 hours to start medical checks. Midfielder Fraser, 26, rejected the offer of a short-term deal to finish last season with the club he joined from Aberdeen in January 2013, and the Magpies appear to have persuaded him that his future lies at St James’ Park.

In addition, Bruce will hope to complete a move for Norwich defender Jamal Lewis after the club had a bid understood to amount to £13.5million plus add-ons accepted by the Canaries.

Lewis, 22, is currently on international duty with Northern Ireland, who play Norway in the Nations League at Windsor Park on Monday evening.

Should Newcastle finalise all three deals having already signed Burnley midfielder Jeff Hendrick and Motherwell goalkeeper Mark Gillespie, they could justifiably claim to have had a more than reasonable window given the financial restrictions under which they have been operating.

Owner Mike Ashley was initially reluctant to sanction transfer activity as the club’s long-running takeover saga took a series of further twists before Amanda Staveley’s largely Saudi-backed consortium withdrew its bid, and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on football in general has imposed an austerity of its own.

Wilson, Fraser and Lewis, of course, all played for clubs which were relegated from the top flight at the end of last season, although all three are men who were held in high regard long before that point.