French newspaper L'Equipe has named Newcastle United as one of the clubs interested in Lille centre-back Sven Botman (via Sport Witness).

The lowdown

Botman only moved to Lille last summer, joining from Ajax for a fee of £7.2million.

He started all but one Ligue 1 match last season, helping Lille end Paris Saint-Germain's run of three consecutive French titles.

Botman averaged 3.2 successful aerial duels (ranking him in the league's top 10), 3.2 clearances, 1.5 interceptions and 3.8 accurate long balls per 90 minutes (via WhoScored).

Lille are in financial trouble, with one source going as far as to label them 'skint' (via The Athletic).

The latest

The report says that Lille would rather sell others to address their need for cash, and have slapped a price tag of more than €50million (£42.8million) on Botman's head.

Newcastle are identified as one of Premier League suitors, alongside champions Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United.

The verdict

It wouldn't be a surprise, given their situation, if Lille lessened their demands in the remaining weeks of the window.

But let's remember that Newcastle aren't in a strong position either. Amid uncertainty over the club's ownership, their budget has been described as 'meagre', so the Toon will need Lille to get pretty desperate here.

Perhaps the only way this deal would be realistic would be if there was a huge cash influx on Tyneside through the lucrative sale of a player like Allan Saint-Maximin.

Newcastle could theoretically look to put the healthy proceeds towards two or three players, with Botman, hailed as a "leader" by former manager Christophe Galtier, perhaps one of them.

In other news, Luke Edwards dropped this worrying claim on ASM.