Get the latest NUFC transfer and takeover news straight to your inbox for FREE by signing up to our newsletter Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Newcastle United’s Football Board have been given the nod by Mike Ashley to go out and break the club’s transfer record this month.

With a fortnight left of the window to run, head coach Steve McClaren is keen to add a striker and a winger to his squad and wants Tottenham Hotspur’s Andros Townsend plus West Brom’s Saido Berahino.

No deals have been agreed just yet, but Berahino is open to a move and would tick the box in United’s striker department as far as McClaren is concerned.

However, Newcastle would have to go beyond the £18million mark to get the England Under-21 international – a fee that would smash the club’s record of £16million paid for Michael Owen in 2005.

The Magpies have Spurs for company as they look to snap up the forward who was called up by England last season.

Berahino has had issues with West Brom this season and has not always seen eye to eye with Tony Pulis at the Hawthorns.

Newcastle have relied on the French and Dutch markets in recent years, but the West Brom youth product is admired by chief scout Graham Carr and has been checked out consistently on UK scouting missions.

Pulis admitted Berahino could quit Albion this month and said: “Every player is for sale if the price is right and if the club deem it to be right.

“The chairman will be the one who controls that and the chairman will decide that.

“It’s the chairman’s football club and financially he has always controlled it in a way that he has thought is the best way for West Brom.”

Burundi-born Berahino had vowed never to play for West Brom again after a move to Tottenham collapsed during the summer window.

But Newcastle are confident that they can get Berahino settled down again and focused on his football.

Tottenham want more than £14million for Townsend and a loan deal with a view to a permanent arrangement has also been discussed.

However Ashley has made it clear to managing director Lee Charnley that he is prepared to invest.

Indeed, while Ashley took a back-seat at St James’ Park at the end of last season in terms of boardroom discussions, he is still the club’s main benefactor and wants to be a Premier League club next season when the £5billion TV deal for top flight club’s gets under way.