Crystal Palace and West Ham are battling to sign the Hull City forward Jarrod Bowen.
Palace thought they were close to landing the 23-year-old after positive talks with the Championship club on Thursday but West Ham’s interest has complicated their pursuit.
Bowen had also been a target for Steve Bruce but Newcastle value him at appreciably less than the £20m Hull believe he is worth. In a further blow to Bruce, Newcastle failed in an attempt to land Olivier Giroud on loan from Chelsea. The France striker, who has also attracted interest from Tottenham, Internazionale and Lazio, turned down a move to St James’ Park.
Bowen has scored 17 goals this season and is also a target for Leeds and West Brom but would prefer a move to the Premier League. Top-flight clubs including Norwich, Watford and Southampton were keen but balked at the price. West Ham also considered Bowen too expensive earlier in the window but have moved for him now. They and Palace are ready to pay him around £60,000 a week.
Newcastle are due to complete the £2m loan signing of Tottenham’s Danny Rose and will continue hunting for a forward, with Bruce anxious about his side’s overreliance on the £40m Joelinton. The Brazilian centre-forward has scored only one Premier League goal since arriving from Hoffenheim as the Newcastle’s record buy last summer.
Reports in Germany on Thursday also linked Newcastle with the 25-year-old Hertha Berlin striker Davie Selke.
Rose, meanwhile, opted for Newcastle ahead of Bournemouth and Watford, partly as he was keen to return to the north-east after enjoying a loan at Sunderland earlier in his career. The 29-year-old left-back has made 12 appearances for Spurs this season but has not started a league game since October and knew a transfer was essential were he to fulfil his ambition of securing a place in Gareth Southgate’s Euro 2020 squad. Although he will be a free agent in the summer he could remain at Newcastle, who would almost certainly offer an improvement on the £60,000 weekly wage he commanded at Spurs.
More immediately, the move suits Bruce, who has recently lost two left-backs – or left wing-backs – to season-ending injuries in Jetro Willems and Paul Dummett. Rose travelled with his agent on Thursday for a medical and is set to join two more recent loanee arrivals: Nabil Bentaleb, the Algeria midfielder borrowed from Schalke, and the Austria winger Valentino Lazaro, recruited from Internazionale.
