Newcastle have agreed a fee with Leicester for the transfer of left winger Harvey Barnes, sources have confirmed to 90min.
Barnes, who played his way briefly into the England squad in 2020, was a rare bright spot in an otherwise dismal 2022/23 campaign that ended in relegation for the Foxes.
His tally of 13 Premier League goals was a career best return and only 11 players in the whole division found the net more often over the course of the 38-game season.
West Ham had initially been making progress in talks to sign Barnes. However, they were unable to move things towards completion before Newcastle came on the scene earlier this month.
The Magpies already had a longstanding interest and were willing to move Allan Saint-Maximin, who has attracted interest from Saudi Arabia, out of the squad to free up space.
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As 90min has already reported, Saint-Maximin is on course to join Al Ahli – his departure from St James’ Park to the Middle East should now be finalised by the weekend.
The final transfer fee agreed with Leicester for Barnes stands at £38m. That figure includes add-ons and immediately makes the 25-year-old one of the most expensive players in the club’s history. It is a similar amount to what was spent on both Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton, with only Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali, Alexander Isak costing significantly more.
Barnes is to become the second big money departure from Leicester this summer, following on from James Maddison’s £40m transfer to Tottenham. Youri Tielemans also left the club for Aston Villa on a free transfer when his contract expired.
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On this week’s edition of Talking Transfers, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders is joined by Toby Cudworth and Graeme Bailey to discuss Brighton rejecting Chelsea’s bid for Moises Caicedo, Man City closing in on Josko Gvardiol, Harry Maguire’s uncertain Man Utd future and more!
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