Ciaran Clark came off the bench in Newcastle United's 3-1 pre-season win against Hibernian last night as the Magpies boss remained bullish about keeping his defender.
Clark remains a Newcastle United player despite being linked with Bristol City and Crystal Palace in the last 24 hours.
The Robins look set to sell centre back Adam Webster to Brighton & Hove Albion for a fee raising to as much as £25m with add-ons but City head coach Lee Johnson will want to fill the void left in his squad quickly and Republic of Ireland centre-back Clark, 29, could well be that man.
The Newcastle Chronicle reports Clark was pulled to one side by Newcastle manager Steve Bruce for a private chat before kick off at Easter Road and was named only as a sub at Easter Road for the clash against Hibernian.
He came off the bench in the 71st minute replacing Paul Dummett.
The Chronicle gave Clark a seven out of 10 in their player ratings for the game.
After the match Bruce, who has been Newcastle's manager for just a couple of weeks after making the switch to the Premier League club from Sheffield Wednesday, played down talk Clark will be leaving the club.
He said: “I have had a chat and that is not going to happen.”
However Clark only played 14 games for Newcastle last season and could bring in a fee between £5m-£7m according to several sources.
