Newcastle will have to come up with £17million in cash if they want to take striker Andy Carroll back to Tyneside.
The Magpies are still keen to bring the England striker home but hopes of doing a swap deal involving mercurial midfielder Hatem Ben Arfa this summer are set to be dashed.
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers is an admirer of the gifted French international but Ben Arfa’s injury problems means that the Anfield club won’t take a chance on his fitness at this stage.
Toon owner Mike Ashley banked £35m from the sale of Carroll in January 2011 but is looking for a cut-price deal, ideally involving a part-exchange. But with the injury-prone Ben Arfa sidelined long term with a hamstring problem, Liverpool have put their interest in the former Marseilles man on hold.
Stu Forster
Newcastle bought five French stars in January for the sort of cash Liverpool want for Carroll and could now go back to France for St Etienne striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
That would leave the door open for West Ham to try and find the cash to make Carroll’s stay at Upton Park permanent.
But Ben Arfa will be going nowhere in a hurry any time soon as he was banned from driving for 49 days and fined £5,100 last week for overtaking a police car at 110mph in a Mercedes which also had no insurance.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid will offer Xabi Alonso a two-year contract extension in a bid to prevent him returning to Liverpool