Newcastle United agree to sign Celtic and Brighton & Hove Albion transfer target

Newcastle United have agreed to sign Alex Murphy - with the highly-rated Irish defender officially joining in July.

It is understood the Magpies saw off competition from Celtic, Brighton and Torino for the 17-year-old, who will link up with Elliott Dickman’s under-23s.

Murphy, who turns 18 in June, is arriving from League of Ireland First Division side Galway United.

The versatile defender joined Galway from Corrib Celtic aged 14 and quickly progressed through the age groups.

Indeed, he made his senior debut against Athlone Town in June last year at the tender age of 16.

This season, Murphy has been a regular for John Caulfield’s side at left-back, missing just one of their 16 games.

Murphy has also captained the Republic of Ireland at under-18s level and was a standby for the under-21s squad late last year.

Steve Harper, Newcastle United’s academy manager, said: “We are very pleased to have secured a deal to bring Alex to Newcastle United.

“He is a very promising young player who has attracted a lot of attention from clubs. It is a real coup for our academy and is a testament to the direction the club is going in under our owners.

“I would like to thank everyone involved with Galway United for their assistance. The club has been a pleasure to deal with and I wish John Caulfield and his players the very best of luck for the rest of the season.”

Galway academy coach Martin Devlin described Murphy as an “elegant, ball-playing centre-back, who is comfortable bringing possession out of defence and finding his teammates in midfield with a pass.”

Meanwhile, Newcastle have confirmed their first two pre-season friendly matches at St James’ Park with Serie A side Atalanta and La Liga outfit Athletic Club the visitors.

It is like Eddie Howe will name two separate teams for each fixture. United play Atalanta on Friday, July 29 (kick-off 7:45pm) before facing Bilbao the following day (kick-off TBC).

Howe’s side were scheduled to fly out to the United States to take part in the Ohio Cup alongside Wolverhampton Wanderers, Villarreal and Valencia but the tournament was cancelled for a non specified reason.