Newcastle fear Benjamin Sesko is holding out for a move to Manchester United after seeing their club-record £70million offer rejected, talkSPORT understands.

The Magpies submitted an offer of €75million (£65m) plus €5m (£4.3m) in add-ons.

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But Leipzig have turned down the bid as they hold out for at least an initial £70m fee – and a future sell-on clause.

It’s the same price that Leipzig quoted Arsenal earlier in the window.

Arsenal ultimately turned their attention to signing Viktor Gyokeres instead after sporting director Andrea Berta was unable to drive the price down.

Manchester United are also in talks over a move for Sesko after sending a delegation to Germany earlier this week.

A decision over his future appears imminent, after he was left out of Leipzig’s squad for their friendly defeat against Atalanta on Saturday.

RB Leipzig believe they can drag Newcastle and United into a bidding war for their star striker.

As reported earlier on Saturday by talkSPORT, United were willing to offer Rasmus Hojlund as a sweetener to land Sesko, but the Dane does not want to make the move.

Sesko has already told his Leipzig teammates he expects to leave this summer.

News of Newcastle’s bid for the Slovenian comes less than 24 hours after the club rejected Liverpool’s £110m offer for Alexander Isak.

And the nature of that rebuttal has meant the Reds have no imminent plans to follow up with a second approach this transfer window – unless Newcastle’s position changes.

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talkSPORT understands the Magpies want to keep their star forward, or at least source a replacement before agreeing to sell him, with £150m thought to be the asking price.

Isak, who has been training with former club Real Sociedad, has told Newcastle he wants to leave this summer.

The Swede also holds the honour of being Newcastle’s record signing, as the club forked out £63m to secure his services from Real Sociedad in August 2022.

Should Newcastle land Sesko, it would be a significant coup for the Magpies and a much-needed transfer boost given they have whiffed on multiple targets this summer.

Who have Newcastle missed out on this summer?

The likes of Bryan Mbeumo, Joao Pedro, Hugo Ekitike, Dean Huijsen, James Trafford and Liam Delap were all wanted by Newcastle.

However, Newcastle boss Eddie Howe was left to watch the sextuple move elsewhere.

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Mbeumo went to Manchester United, Delap and Pedro joined Chelsea, Ekitike got snapped up by Liverpool, Trafford returned to Manchester City and Huijsen secured a move to Spanish giants Real Madrid.

Howe did manage to secure one of his targets thus far in the form of electric winger Anthony Elanga, who arrived from Nottingham Forest in a £55m deal.

But the 47-year-old is under no illusion that the sole addition of the Sweden international will be enough for the upcoming campaign as the club returns to the bright lights of the Champions League.

“We’re not deluded,” Howe said following Newcastle’s 3-2 loss to Arsenal in Singapore as part of their pre-season preparations.

“We know we need to bring players in. We’ve known that. We know what we wanted. It’s been a challenging window.”

Another player in Newcastle’s crosshairs is Brentford ace Yoane Wissa.

Newcastle have had a £25m bid rejected by the Bees for the winger, who indicated they would not part with their 19-goal star for anything less than £50m.

But Wissa, who has one year remaining on his contract, is determined to force an exit and has even refused to train.

At 28, Wissa is understood to hold a desire to play Champions League football for a big club and believes it may be the last chance in his career to do so.

This was communicated to Brentford in face-to-face talks over his future in London after Wissa left Brentford’s pre-season tour in Lisbon.