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Wolves must act quickly to catch Newcastle United ace Conor Newton

Wolves were today urged to act quickly if they want to secure the signing of Newcastle midfielder Conor Newton.

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The 22-year-old Geordie, who has negotiated a free transfer from the Magpies to secure first-team football elsewhere, has received offers from two un-named Championship clubs in the last two days.

Newton, who has been tracked by Wolves since before Kenny Jackett was appointed head coach almost a year ago, has been watched by a host of scouts from English clubs in the last two games of the SPL season, where he has been on loan with St Mirren since January 2013.

Wolves were among those in attendance at Kilmarnock last Wednesday to watch him in St Mirren's 1-0 away defeat, along with representatives from Bolton, Wigan and Blackburn.

On Saturday, it's understood Wolves were joined by Sheffield Wednesday, Millwall and Rotherham in the crowd for a 1-1 home draw against Hearts.

Molineux head coach Kenny Jackett, who was summarising for TV at Leyton Orient's winning play-off semi-final second leg against Peterborough last night after attending Preston's 1-1 draw against Rotherham on Saturday, wants more competition for the attacking central midfield role that out-of-contract Dave Edwards impressed in during the last third of the season.

Box-to-box player Newton fits the bill with his running statistics at Newcastle said to be matched only by Yohan Cabaye.

And despite plenty of rival interest, he is said to be keen on a switch to Wolves, although Jackett has other targets too.

A source close to Newton said: "There's lots of Championship interest in Conor, as well as teams looking to go up to the Championship, and the interest is coming in quite quickly.

"Wolves' interest is pretty serious – they've been to watch him quite a few times and have been tracking him for a while.

"But Wolves have been in for him before on loan before he went back to St Mirren and I think he'd be keen on joining them."

Newton said: "I've decided to move on from Newcastle when my contract expires.

"I've played 60 games for St Mirren and I've got to continue playing now on a regular basis.

"I'm thankful to Newcastle for letting me leave on a free and I'm grateful to Alan Pardew and all the coaching staff at Newcastle.

"But I just feel I need to leave so I can continue my own career."

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