‘They’re watching him’ - Agent braced for Newcastle United offer in coming months

A high profile football agent in Italy claims Newcastle United have held talks to sign one of his clients.

Florin Manea is the agent of Romanian international Radu Dragusin, who currently plays his football in Italy with Serie A side Genoa. Dragusin is a highly rated defender, who emerged through the academy of Italian giants Juventus when he was just 18-years-old.

He was introduced into the first team set up after impressing Andrea Pirlo in training and was later sent out on loan to fellow Italian sides Sampdoria and Genoa. Dragusin was a key part of the Genoa team which won automatic promotion from Serie B last season and he played in all 38 of his team’s games, whilst contributing four goals.

Genoa conceded just 28 goals throughout the entirety of last season and the form of Dragusin prompted Genoa to sign him on a permanent deal in the summer.The Romanian international is highly regarded in Italy and Goal.com have previously referred to the defender as the ‘Romanian Virgil Van Dijk’ due to his impressive strength and awareness.

Newcastle are currently fairly short on defensive options with Jamaal Lascelles and Paul Dummett acting as the only back-up options to Sven Botman and Fabian Schar. But Dragusin’s agent Manea insists the Magpies are determined to rectify that situation.

Speaking to Sports Witness, he explained: “Genoa don’t want to give him now, but in the summer yes. If they get the price they want, you realise it’s a lot of money. Genoa want €30m, they said directly.

“I don’t think there is anyone in Italy who would give this amount of €30m. I talked about the Premier League area, I talked about Newcastle, but they are not the only ones, there are several teams I am talking to.”

Apart from Eddie Howe’s side, the representative hasn’t revealed the details of other Premier League clubs interested. However, Newcastle seem to have an advantage because of their sporting director, Dan Ashworth.

When the latter was at West Bromwich Albion, he signed another Manea client, Gabriel Tamaș, and this deal has helped the agent maintain good ties with the director.

“The director with whom I made [a deal for] Tamaș at West Brom is now at Newcastle. We have known each other since 2009. They are also watching him, but also other big clubs in England. There’s no official offer yet, but it’s coming. It will be a pleasant surprise when it arrives.”