Newcastle United are interested in signing Leicester City winger Harvey Barnes and the Foxes’ passenger list for their flight to Thailand could confirm how close or how far away a deal really is
Leicester City could drop a big hint about Newcastle United target Harvey Barnes’ future when the Foxes fly out to Thailand later this week.
The Leicester squad are due to arrive in Bangkok, the birthplace of owner ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha, on Friday ahead of facing Spurs in a pre-season friendly at the Rajamangala Stadium on Sunday. Members of the first-team squad will then hold a question and answer session with supporters next Monday.
Whether Barnes will be on the flight remains to be seen. Eddie Howe confirmed ‘nothing was close’ with Barnes, or any deal for that matter, at the weekend after the 25-year-old missed another of Leicester’s warm-up games. Having been ‘rested’ for Leicester’s behind-closed-doors clash against Peterborough last Tuesday, Barnes was again absent from the team sheet for the trip to Northampton Town on
Saturday.
Enzo Maresca admitted that ‘anything’ could happen with Barnes following that 1-0 win at Sixfields, but the Leicester boss stressed that the winger had ‘some problems’ and had not been training with the main group for a few days as a result. The Italian, tellingly, did not elaborate.
Leicester, who face Oud-Heveree Leuven at home on Wednesday, are understood to be resigned to losing Barnes this summer. Whether the Newcastle target travels to the Far East or stays at home could underline how close or, indeed, how far away a move from the King Power Stadium really is good
“We are very excited to go there, to travel there,” Maresca told LCFC TV. “We know the temperature is different so we are probably going to struggle a little bit the way we can train. Today, football is like this. All the clubs need to go abroad for pre-season so we are going to adapt.”
Newcastle face Rangers at Ibrox on Tuesday before embarking on their own long-haul flight to the U.S. for the Premier League summer series. New signing Sandro Tonali will be on board, but Howe repeatedly emphasised the ‘need’ to bring in further additions at the weekend.
