Newcastle Target Højbjerg as Marseille Faces Departure

Newcastle United are moving quickly to plug the gap left by Bruno Guimarães, and the solution has a familiar Premier League face. According to Foot Mercato, the club are close to an agreement with Olympique de Marseille for Pierre-Emile Højbjerg in a deal worth around €15 million, with all sides hoping to wrap it up this week.

For Newcastle, stripped of their midfield metronome after Guimarães’ move to Arsenal, the logic is clear. Højbjerg, 31, brings exactly what Eddie Howe’s side now lack: experience, structure, and a taste for the intensity of English football. This would not be a gamble on potential. It would be a bet on reliability.

For Marseille, the story is very different.

The French club are operating under financial strain and need sales to balance the books. An agreement at this price would represent a welcome injection of cash for a board that has been forced to juggle ambition with hard economic reality. Letting a cornerstone of the dressing room go is never easy, but the numbers are doing the talking.

Højbjerg has earned that status on the Canebière. Since arriving two years ago, he has been more than a squad piece; he has been a constant. In his first season, he started all 32 of his appearances. In his second, he pushed that to 43 games, starting 40 of them and taking his combative style onto the Champions League stage with eight appearances in Europe’s elite competition.

Those figures tell the story of a manager’s first name on the team sheet. They also explain why losing him cuts deep.

For the player, though, the move would mark a return to familiar territory. The Dane knows the Premier League inside out after previous spells with Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur, where he built his reputation as a hard-edged, tactically disciplined midfielder who thrives in high-tempo battles. Newcastle would not need to wait for adaptation; they would be signing a player already versed in the league’s demands.

If the deal goes through as expected, Marseille will gain financial breathing space but lose one of their on-pitch leaders. Newcastle, on the other hand, would step into the new season with a rebuilt midfield spine, turning a painful departure in Guimarães into an opportunity built around Højbjerg’s steel and know-how.

The only question now is timing: how quickly can the paperwork catch up with the urgency on the pitch?