Newcastle United are stepping up their efforts to sign Bayer Leverkusen left-back Mitchel Bakker after making an offer of around £14.5million.
Sportsmail revealed on Tuesday how Newcastle had targeted the Holland international and the response has been positive.
Bakker only joined from Paris St Germain last summer in a deal worth up to £8m and Newcastle's offer would give Leverkusen a healthy and swift profit.
It's understood the Bundesliga side recognise the business sense of the deal and are willing to negotiate while 21-year old Bakker, who is represented by Mino Raiola, is keen to make the move to the Premier League.
Newcastle hope to make more headway over the deal on Thursday although it's unlikely that it could be done in time for the player to be registered for the weekend.
They continue to run a number of parallel negotiations for other targets.
Offers are in for Jesse Lingard at Manchester United and Diego Carlos of Sevilla, though there is understood to be added interest in him from Tottenham and Milan, while approaches have been made for other defenders such as Benoit Badiashile at Monaco, James Tarkowski of Burnley and Nico Schlotterbeck of Freiburg who is expected to join Bayern Munich instead.
Amadou Haidara of Red Bull Leipzig and Brighton's Yves Bissouma are also on their wish list for the midfield but either of them would cost close to £50m this month.
A number of strikers remain under consideration but strengthening their defence is the priority.
Reims, meanwhile, have confirmed they rejected a £30million offer from Newcastle for their highly-rated teenage striker Hugo Ekitike.
In an interview with Le Quotidien du Sport, Reims president Jean-Pierre Caillot said: 'It is true that a lot have realised the quality of the player now, but not us. He was formed with us and it does not surprise us.
'Newcastle positioned themselves, we discussed it, they made us an offer that did not suit us. As we do not really want him to leave, we have fixed the price quite high. They did offer us €35million (£29.2m) all in, but with a number of bonuses, some of them were quasi-impossible to reach. Like for example, winning the Champions’ League. We want €30m (£25m) flat and €10m (£8.3m) achievable bonuses.'
Sportsmail revealed Newcastle's interest in the 19-year-old on January 9 but the move now looks to be off.