Newcastle United to make January move for Bournemouth's Lloyd Kelly

The Magpies failed to sign a central defender in the summer, and the position is expected to be a priority area for Eddie Howe and the rest of the club’s recruitment team when the transfer window reopens in January.

Kelly, who is in the final year of his contract at Bournemouth, is reported to be a leading target, with the 24-year-old having come close to a move away from the Vitality Stadium in the summer.

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Tottenham had a £20m bid rejected by the Bournemouth hierarchy, who hope to be able to persuade Kelly to sign a new long-term deal.

However, if there is no progress in transfer talks in the next couple of months, the Cherries will almost certainly look to cash in at the turn of the year rather than run the risk of losing a major asset for nothing next summer.

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Kelly joined Bournemouth from Bristol City for a reported fee of £13m in the summer of 2019, and has made 117 senior appearances for the club.

A former England Under-21 international, he is also understood to be interesting Liverpool, who have central defensive issues of their own to resolve with doubts over the long-term future of Joel Matip, who turned 32 last month.

Newcastle would ideally like another centre-half to provide cover and competition for current first-choice pairing Sven Botman and Fabian Schar.

Dan Burn started at centre-half in last weekend’s defeat at Brighton with Botman unavailable because of injury, with skipper Jamaal Lascelles having tumbled down the pecking order under Howe.