Newcastle United are said to be looking at talented Leicester City midfielder Anthony Knockaert, perhaps as a direct replacement for Jonas Gutierrez. The Magpies had a scout watching The Foxes impressive 4-1 win over rivals Derby County on Friday night and the young Frenchman is the man they have been watching, according to sources. The winger has played an important part in Leicester's season, where they sit four points clear at the top of the SkyBet Championship, and another season without promotion to the Premier League could see Knockaert jump ship regardless. The 22 year old has two French under 21 caps and has scored a respectable 12 goals from the wing in 67 league appearances since joining Leicester from Ligue 2 club Guingamp for £900,000 eighteen months ago. Magpies Director of Football Joe Kinnear wrote the following in his programme notes ahead of the 2-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday:
"We will not be rushed or forced into making knee-jerk decisions, which experience tells us more often than not turn out to be costly mistakes. "'We have made certain elements of our transfer policy well known. One example being the desire to recruit players whose futures are ahead of them, not behind, which in nearly all cases means players in their early to mid-20s, not beyond"
In other news, Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has appologied for insulting Man City boss Manuel Pellegrini at the weekend, when he was caught live in front of Sky Sports cameras telling the Chilean to "shut your noise you f------ old c---".