West Ham and Crystal Palace to Go Head-to-Head for Aleksandar Mitrovic Signature

04 December 2016

Aleksandar Mitrovic is on the radar ofLondon clubs West Ham and Crystal Palace, according to theDaily Express,as the two look to bolster their attacking options in order to steer clear of a relegation battle.

The Serbian forward scored nine times for the Magpies last season and also managed to grab four assists in a season that saw the club relegated from the Premier Leaguefor the second time in seven years.

Newcastle lead the Championship table, largely thanks to goals fromformer Crystal Palace striker, Dwight Gayle. Despite experiencing a relegation of his own - to the Newcastle bench in favour of Gayle - Mitrovic has managed to find the net five times this season along with two assists.

The forward seems to have also shaken off his earlier disciplinary issues that saw him sent off twice last season; the second of which caused him to miss the opening four games of this Newcastle season.

Mitrovic stats:

Age: 22

15/16: 22 starts - 9 goals

16/17: 6 starts - 5 Goals

Total: 28 starts - 14 goals

2 red cards

Keep or sell? pic.twitter.com/Q5PUiuBgTF

Crystal Palace's record-signing Christian Benteke recently found his shooting boots, allowing him to bag a brace against visitors Southampton to provide the Eagles with their first win since September. With Connor Wickham and Jonathan Benteke set to miss large parts of the season, Palace could do with some striking back-up.

West Ham, on the other hand, have been boosted by the goalscoring return of Andy Carroll, but it is no secret that the club have been in the market for a new striker - recently having their hopes of signing Liverpool's Daniel Sturridge played down by Jurgen Klopp.

Newcastle boss Rafael Benitez has stated that he toois keen on keeping the Serbian striker who he expects to play an important part in helping the club to achieve promotion.

This means that it would probably take something close to the Â£15m that Newcastle paid for the forward around 18 months ago to convince them to sell.