Newcastle are battling Crystal Palace in the race to sign highly-rated Celtic defender Jozo Simunovic, according to the Daily Mail.
The 22-year-old only joined Celtic during the 2015 summer transfer window from Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb for a fee in the region of £6.4m and impressed in his debut season last term.
However, his season was derailed after a knee ligament injury suffered in January which ended his season after just 17 appearances for the club.
Simunovic did catch the eye of potential suitors in the little time he played for Celtic, with Torino nearly completing a £4m move for the centre-back in the summer but the move fell through due to the structure of the payments, while the Serie A side also raised questions over his fitness following the knee injury.
Since returning from that knee injury, Simunovic has featured in six-straight games for Celtic as he bids to return to last season’s form.
Capped nine times by the Croatian U21 set-up, Simunovic is someone that Brendan Rodgers want’s to keep hold of.
He is a big talent. If you look at his profile, he is 6ft 3in, he is very dominant, strong, quick, can serve the ball and for a young player shows a wonderful mentality. He is a player I really like and hopefully he can stay fit.
Both Newcastle and Crystal Palace are monitoring his situation and tracking his progress, presumably ahead of a January swoop.
You would imagine if Newcastle were to make a summer move then one of Jamaal Lascelles, Chancel Mbemba, Ciaran Clark or Grant Hanley would be leaving the club.
