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.
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.
Tidy performance from Sven Botman for Lille vs Metz. 0-0 but Metz don’t even manage shot on target as Botman controls game with 108 touches no less. #nufc scouts watching again.
— Lee Ryder (@lee_ryder) February 18, 2022
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.
