Newcastle are closely monitoring Phillips' situation at Manchester City. Possible loan signings this summer with Manchester City's Calvin Phillips and Chelsea's Conor Gallagher are of interest, but they appear to have stalled in their talks with Southampton over Tino Livramento.
The Telegraph Sport reported last week that Newcastle had made a bid for the winger but could not reach a compromise on the fee, although the player is keen to make the move.
Southampton. looking to get over £30m for the England under-21s but Newcastle are unwilling to pay that much and are threatening to pull out of the deal as they don't think the recently relegated Championship club is realistic with their demand.
Newcastle's bid, believed to have risen to £21m, remains on the negotiating table but if no progress is made this week they will move on.
The situation is complicated by the fact that Newcastle have shown they can be deceptive when it comes to the size of their budgets as well as their goals, but they have more pressing priorities this summer than signing captain Kieran Trippier.
Sources at St. James Park have repeatedly stressed that asking prices this summer have been “astronomically high” and they don't have a huge amount of money to spend.
Tino Livramento is back for pre-season training with Southampton. Credit: Getty Images/Matt Watson
It has also been confirmed that they are actively looking across Europe for players who could be allowed to go on loan with the option or obligation to buy at the end of next season.
Anyone in a position to give an accurate assessment of the situation admits that a huge chunk of their budget has been spent on Italy's Sandro Tonali, who is worth £52m and will be confirmed as a Newcastle player this week.
The right centre-back appears to be the most concern, but the original plan this summer was to also add a left-back and two midfielders rather than one.
This leaves the club with a lot of work to do – and presumably very little money to do so. Newcastle are closely monitoring Phillips' situation at Manchester City in case he is told he could leave this summer. Phillips has been adamant that he wants to fight for his place under Pep Guardiola, but that could change when he returns to pre-season training if he is told his playing time will be limited again.
Newcastle asked about signing Gallagher from Chelsea in each of the last two transfer windows, but it has been reported that new manager Mauricio Pochettino wants to give the England international another chance to shine at Stamford Bridge.
Newcastle are also in desperate need of promoting players to make room on the payroll with Ryan Frazier, Karl Darlow, Jeff Hendrick, Isaac Hayden and Javier Manquillo. million mark for Allan Saint-Maximin, he can be sold, but Eddie Howe would like to keep him.
It depends a lot on the mood of the player. If he makes it clear that he wants to spend another season at Tyneside, any thought of selling him will be dropped.
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