Newcastle United will not be able to sign Charlie Austin at a "bargain-bucket" price this summer and have been warned by their former forward Les Ferdinand that they must be prepared to part with a substantial amount of cash to sign the Queens Park Rangers striker. The Magpies are the bookies' favourites to land Austin this summer ahead of the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Southampton, but securing the forward's signature from the already-relegated club will not come cheap according to Ferdinand, QPR's director of football. Austin is the fourth-top scorer in the Premier League this season having bagged an impressive 17 goals despite playing for a side who are bottom of the table. Newcastle need to add firepower to their strikeforce because they have managed just 37 goals all season - and top-scorer Papiss Cisses future at the club is in doubt, meaning they will have just Ayoze Perez, Adam Armstrong and the goalless Emmanuel Riviere as forwards next year. They have turned their attention to the highly-coveted Austin, who will want to remain in the Premier League - and that cannot be with QPR next season after their 6-0 humbling against Manchester City confirmed their relegation. But Ferdinand warned Newcastle they will not get the 25-year-old former Swindon Town and Burnley striker on the cheap. He told the London Evening Standard on Wednesday:
"This club isn't going to be a bargain bucket. Charlie has had a fantastic year in terms of scoring in the Premier League with 17 in his debut season. "He is fourth in the list of top scorers and that is in a team which has been relegated. That is a phenomenal strike rate. We can gloss over it as much as we want but people are going to court him, people are going to come after him. "Can we keep him? We are going to sit down with Charlie and talk to him. But it will come down to him and his agent to decide what's best for Charlie Austin. "But I'm not even going to talk about what figure we will ask for from other clubs because we are going to try and keep him."
The Magpies have moved into the lead in the race to secure Austins signature, but they will only be able to do so if they manage to ensure their own Premier League survival in the last two games of the season. Austin has scored 106 goals in 197 league games for Swindon, Burnley and QPR since the beginning of 2010. For all the latest NUFC News, Views and Transfers make sure to follow WhatCultureNUFC on Twitter and Facebook.