Newcastle monitoring Manchester City midfielder over potential £25 million transfer | OneFootball

Manchester City face a fresh challenge from Premier League rivals Newcastle United over the future of highly-rated attacking midfield talent, James McAtee.

The England youth international has significantly struggled for consistent first-team opportunities at Manchester City, since Pep Guardiola worked intensely to retain the player for the ongoing season last summer.

After back-to-back loan spells at Sheffield United in the Championship and Premier League, McAtee retained rave reviews throughout the game, and even attracted transfer interest from Chelsea during the last summer market after their remarkable success with Cole Palmer.

But while Pep Guardiola spoke fondly of McAtee and his traits that would be useful to Manchester City this season, the midfielder has been limited to under 400 minutes of match action and has started only two games across his 10 appearances.

That has sparked mass transfer interest in the player this month, as a number of clubs from both England and Germany try to take advantage of a situation that could see McAtee force his way out of Manchester City, should he deem it necessary.

And now, according to the information of MailSport’s Craig Hope, Newcastle United are the latest club to be monitoring the situation of the player at Manchester City, with the Etihad Stadium midfielder having a price tag of £25million.

As highlighted by other reports in recent weeks, it is once again reminded that McAtee has clubs in England and abroad interested in signing him this month, and while Newcastle are briefing that incomings are unlikely, interest in the City man could be followed in the summer.

The talents of James McAtee were once again reminded to Pep Guardiola and Manchester City fans during his recent appearance in the final 25 minutes against Leicester City, in which a bright moment of speed and dribbling created a second goal for the club away from home.

In light of that bright spark in attack, Guardiola told a recent press conference, “He (James McAtee) made us believe that maybe he should’ve had more minutes but he’s young, and a lot of games still to play, but of course he played really good.

“And the most important is all of his teammates were so happy, because he has big respect for how he behaves in the locker room.”

For now, it remains to be seen whether McAtee has any intention of forcing the issue with Manchester City officials this month, who will be keen to retain their existing squad roster until at least the end of the season.