Newcastle United made ‘late bid’ for £30m-rated Premier League ‘colossus’

Newcastle United reportedly made a late bid to sign Crystal Palace defender Joachim Andersen in the final hours of the transfer window.

The Magpies enjoyed a productive summer transfer window by adding AC Milan star Sandro Tonali, Southampton full-back Tino Livramento, Leicester City winger Harvey Barnes and Chelsea youngster Lewis Hall to their squad - but there have been concerns over their failure to bolster their options at the heart of the defence.

Those concerns were heightened when Sven Botman suffered an injury in the defeat against Liverpool and that left Eddie Howe to select two options from Fabian Schar, Dan Burn and club captain Jamaal Lascelles for last weekend’s loss at Brighton and Hove Albion.

Football Insider have now claimed United had a ‘late bid’ rejected by Crystal Palace for Andersen as they looked to ‘upgrade’ on long-serving defender Lascelles, who has been recently linked with a move to the Saudi Arabia Pro-League.

Andersen has forged a strong reputation in making over a century of appearances for Fulham and Palace - and he has already shown why the Magpies are so interested in securing his services with an impressive recent display for his current employers.

Speaking about Andersen’s performance in his side’s 1-1 draw with Brentford last month, Eagles manager Roy Hodgson said: “I thought Joachim Andersen was the outstanding player today in our team and maybe the outstanding player on the field.

“I thought he was a colossus today, he won every header in both ends of the field and I thought he won every challenge he went into, he was a leader figure and he drove the team forward. He wasn’t afraid to come more than midway into the opponent’s half as we saw and he was playing balls and spraying it around from about 25 yards from goal and that was a great responsibility that he took there.”