Newcastle United could make their biggest transfer mistake with £35m risky gamble

Newcastle United have a problem, one that’s likely to be rather expensive to fix. It’s also one that can’t be ignored if they want to fulfil their ambitions of being among the Premier League’s regular contenders for silverware or Champions League places – their defence needs an overhaul.

A recent spate of fresh injuries – Fabian Schär, Dan Burn and Tino Livramento are all sidelined as it stands – has highlighted a depth issue, but the problem runs deeper than that. Too many of Newcastle’s defenders are either old, injury-prone, or simply set to leave on a free transfer at the end of the season.

Either Newcastle take action in the transfer market over the course of 2026, or they will be hamstrung as they try to make forward progress. It’s no surprise, then, to see them linked with a bid for £35m-rated Giorgio Scalvini, an immensely talented young Italian defender currently playing for Atalanta. But the 22-year-old really be the answer to Newcastle’s problems?

Why Newcastle need a defender like Scalvini – and why he isn’t the answer

Newcastle’s issues in defence run deep. Players like Burn and Schär are getting a little long in the tooth and will eventually have to be phased out. Kieran Trippier and Emil Krafth (who never seems to be healthy anyway) are out of contract in six months’ time. And the talented young players they have for the long haul – Livramento, Lewis Hall and Sven Botman – are all starting to look worryingly injury-prone.

In short, Eddie Howe needs both strength and depth, and players who are likely to be shrewd long-term investments. There will be a lot of turnover at the back this year, and making the right decisions could set Newcastle up nicely for years to come. Sign the wrong players, on the other hand…

Scalvini has been linked with Newcastle on a number of occasions and his name came up repeatedly during 2025 after he broke into the Italian national side and started to fulfil the potential and live up to the Football-Manager-wonderkid hype he had generated for several years.

A deal never materialised, not least because of injuries. A knee ligament injury towards the end of the 2023/24 campaign was followed by a recurrent shoulder problem last season which sidelined him for 24 matches in total. Newcastle opted not to pull the trigger on a player they were monitoring closely while they waited for evidence that he would stay healthy for the long haul.

Now reports suggest that he is on their radar once more. TeamTalk claim that a £35m bid is in the offing, while Sky Sports suggest that Newcastle are actively seeking defenders after Livramento was sidelined for around two months – although they didn’t name Scalvini specifically. He remains a name that will not go away.

Purely in terms of playing ability, £35m for a 22-year-old with such a well-rounded skill-set should be something of a bargain. Not only is he a highly proficient ground defender with excellent judgement in the tackle, but he’s also a superb technical defender who is confident on the ball and has a first-rate passing range for his position. He’s everything Howe wants in his defenders and has many of the same qualities that have made Botman a standout.

He also has the same downside as Botman – he simply can’t stay fit. His knee seems to have held up and his shoulder hasn’t been a problem this season, but he’s still only been able to start six matches. This time, it’s his hamstring and adductor muscles which just can’t stop popping.

All those injuries don’t seem to have slowed Scalvini down too much yet when he does play, but while he’s just what Newcastle need when he is on the field, he’s also precisely the kind of player they need to avoid – another deeply injury-prone player to go alongside Hall, Livramento and Botman. But will they take the chance anyway?

Will Newcastle sign Scalvini this January?

Despite recurring speculation by the more gossip-friendly portions of the football press, there is no evidence that a bid has been made or that Newcastle have approached either the player or his current employers – and at least one outlet suggests that a deal doesn’t look all that likely.

Local newspaper The Chronicle claims that Newcastle have “not followed up” their interest in Scalvini despite an offer to strike a deal from Atalanta themselves, who seem to have decided to cash in on one of their most valuable assets before the injuries start to take the price down too much further.

Their report also claims that while Newcastle are indeed actively reaching out to other possible targets, they are looking for a cheap short-term fix for now, which suggests that their PSR position is such that a £35m deal is off the table, at least until the summer. There is little doubt that Newcastle hold at least some interest in Scalvini, but they also seem justifiably wary, and despite the rumours a January deal seems to be a relatively distant prospect as it stands.

That’s probably a good thing, as excellent of a player as Scalvini is – Newcastle aren’t in a position to take gambles with their defence going forward. They need players who are going to stay fit for the lion’s share of a season, and Scalvini has been exactly the opposite for the past three years.

They also can’t afford to sit on their hands. Several other defenders have been linked with a move to St. James’ Park, such as Celta Vigo’s Óscar Mingueza, there may be some good investments to be made. It’s just hard to imagine that Scalvini would be one of them based on the last few years.