Newcastle can land £35m bonus over Man United by signing Leny Yoro alternative

Manchester United have had a huge bid of up to £65million accepted for Lille teenager Leny Yoro.

The 18-year-old is out of contract at Lille at the end of next season and that has forced the French side's hand when United launched their bid to sign the France youth international, according to our sister title, the Manchester Evening News.

It is a huge sum of money for a player who has played just 60 senior matches and the move is expected to be part of a major defensive overhaul at Old Trafford, with the Red Devils also targeting moves for Matthijs De Ligt of Bayern Munich and Everton star Jarrad Branthwaite.

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Newcastle, of course, are also in the market for a new centre-half and have been heavily linked with a move for AC Milan defender Malick Thiaw.

The 22-year-old, who only joined Milan from German side Schalke two years ago, is already a mainstay in the Milan defence and he is reportedly available for £30million this summer, a whole £35million less than Yoro.

It is a striking difference, particularly when you consider how similar a profile the two defenders share.

Using Macro Football’s player impact tool, which uses analytics to understand a player’s seasonal impact to see which players in European football's top five leagues are most similar to Yoro's characteristics, Thiaw ranks first with a 98.3% similarity rating.

Thiaw also outranked Yoro last season in terms of progressive passes, won more headers per game and completed more clearances, tackles and blocks than him, too.

Should Newcastle complete a deal for Thiaw, they would be signing a player with four seasons of regular football at first team level across both Schalke and AC Milan and a player who already has three caps for Germany at international level.

Yoro may be younger, but only by three years, and Thiaw would arguably offer a more complete defensive option than the teenager for a significantly cheaper price than their Premier League rivals.