Newcastle United are continuing to monitor Barcelona striker Sandro Ramirez's situation at the Nou Camp. Last month, Spanish paper Marca claimed that the 19-year-old was due to spend the 2015-16 season on loan in the North East in a bid to continue his development, but as of yet no deal has come to fruition. However, The Chronicle insist that Newcastle remain interested in taking Ramirez on a season-long loan deal as they hope for a repeat of the success they enjoyed after recruiting Ayoze Perez from Spain for just £1.5 million last summer. Any deal would not be completed until close to the end of the window though - and Ramirez would merely be seen as back-up to senior striking recruits who could also be brought in. Despite Ramirezs agent Gines Carvajal having held talks with Newcastle, reports last month claimed he had been told he must remain in Catalonia in 2015-16 in order to help the Barcelona B team progress upwards from the third tier of Spanish football. Sandro would undoubtedly be a major coup for Newcastle, with the versatile forward having netted four times in just 12 appearances - the majority of which were off the bench - including in the Champions League against Ajax. However, competition for forward positions at the Nou Camp is intense to say the least - and Sandro finds himself down the pecking order behind the likes of Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suarez and Pedro. In spite of this, Sandro has enjoyed plenty of gametime for Barcelona B in the last two seasons and has netted 13 times in 50 appearances. He was due to go out on loan to Sevilla in January too but that deal was scuppered due to Barca suffering a mini injury crisis at the time, and so the three-cap Spain Under-21 international instead remained in Catalonia. Newcastle will hope they do not become the second team within six months to miss out on signing the exciting young striker. For all the latest NUFC News, Views and Transfers make sure to follow whatculture.com/NUFC 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.
