Newcastle's failure to land Sylvain Distin from Manchester City will be eased by the news that Bayern Munich defender Samuel Kuffour is keen on a move to St James' Park.
Magpies boss Graeme Souness is desperate to shore up the leaky backline which has seen them slip to 14th in the Premiership table.
Jean-Alain Boumsong and Celestine Babayaro have already joined from Rangers and Chelsea respectively, although a ?5million bid wasn't enough to persuade Kevin Keegan to part with Distin.
But the news that Kuffour wants to move to Tyneside will come as a welcome relief.
The Ghana international is out of contract in the summer after an 11-year stay at Bayern. During that time he was key to all their success, although that changed following the arrival of Felix Magath in the summer.
The 28-year-old is out of contract at the end of the season and as such won't cost the Magpies too much, while agent Fabio Parisi says his client is keen to ply his trade in the Premiership.
"Bayern would like the player to go now because he could leave for free at the end of the season. So if they receive a good offer something could happen.
"Newcastle is a great club and the Premiership is of interest to Sammy."
