Despite Newcastle Uniteds perilous Premier League position it appears the club are already preparing themselves for life in the top flight next season - with Partizan Belgrade's president claiming the Magpies have "agreed" a £15 million fee with Anderlecht for striker Aleksandar Mitrovic. The 20-year-old Serbian has netted 42 goals in 87 matches for the Belgian club, and has a career total of 67 strikes from 155 games. Although clubs including Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool have been linked to the 6ft 3in forward, Newcastle have supposedly agreed to part with £15 million for a player they have courted for more than a year according to the president of Mitrovic's former side back in Serbia. Speaking to Mundo, Dragan Duric revealed Partizan will receive 20% of the fee, or 3.4 million for the sell-on of Mitrovic from Anderlecht - which puts the full sum of the transfer at approximately 22 million, or £15 million.
"All of you criticised me when I sold Mitrovic and now it has turned out that it was an excellent move. "We sold him for 5 million and now Partizan will gain another 3.4 million - a total of 8.4 million for one player. "According to my information, the transfer of Mitrovic to Newcastle is a done deal - it is a matter of time before he signs."
A powerful and relatively-quick forward, Mitrovic has an eye for goal and he grabbed headlines when he scored Anderlechts equaliser at the Emirates Stadium last November when the Belgian side came from three goals down to draw 3-3 against Arsenal in a Champions League group-stage match. Anderlecht paid Partizan Belgrade a club-record £4 million for the 11-cap Serbia international, who started his career at Teleoptik, back in August 2013 and he has gone on to become one of Europes most sought-after forwards. This season, Mitrovic has bagged 26 goals in 48 matches, including 17 in 33 Belgian Pro League appearances and three in the Champions League. For all the latest NUFC News, Views and Transfers make sure to follow WhatCultureNUFC on Twitter and Facebook.
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
