Newcastle United ‘prepared to compete’ for Antonio Rüdiger’s signature — report

Theoretically, Antonio Rüdiger has been able to negotiate and even sign terms with foreign clubs since January. But as far as we know he’s not done so, at least not seriously, leading to renewed hope that Chelsea will be able to agree a contract extension with him before the end of the season.

However, the longer this situation drags out, especially now with the ownership uncertainty, the less hopeful things will start looking once again. And once the season’s over, other teams in the Premier League will be able to try to turn his head as well, and there’s certainly plenty of money floating about to help them do that.

Chief among those potential players are Newcastle United, flush with currently palatable sources of unlimited financing, who are “prepared to compete” for the 29-year-old’s signature, according to the Telegraph. While they apparently still won’t go north of £200k per week, they could probably offer him plenty of incentives and bonuses as well.

The report does reiterate that Rüdiger staying “has not been completely ruled out”, so we can only hope that it gets ruled in eventually.

(Meanwhile, if Rüdiger does leave, our list of potential replacements has gotten shorter thanks to Wesley Fofana signing a two-year contract extension with Leicester City.)