EXCLUSIVE: United consider Litmanen swoop

---

Kop Talk can exclusively reveal that Newcastle United are sniffing around out-of-favour Liverpool ace Jari Litmanen.

Litmanen bonded well with Fowler - will he follow him out of the door?

Both the Insider and the transfer speculation page have reported Newcastle's interest for some time but the player, who is a huge Liverpool fan, has always insisted that he wanted to fight for his place in the team and he has shown total professionalism in his silence, refusing to moan publicly.

However, Litmanen has told team-mates of his frustration and with Newcastle and several European clubs all trying to arrange a chat with his advisors over the last few months, indications were recently made that he is now prepared to listen.

Agents representing Newcastle have allegedly already held talks with Litmanen's representatives and Liverpool are likely to off-load him (if given chance) due to the high wages that he collects to reduce the wage bill.

Whether or not Newcastle will follow-up their interest formally remains to be seen but is becoming more and more likely that he'll be on his way in the summer, unless of course Liverpool lose Anelka and fail to bring in someone else and you can expect the same lines that were dished out in the past about Robbie Fowler e.g. "Robbie (replace name with Jari here) remains a huge part of this club's future and he is not for sale (yet!)".

Litmanen's relationship with the club apparently went down hill following an alleged training ground incident quite some time ago (see Insider archive for details).

For possible further updates, please monitor the transfer speculation page.