Moussa Sissoko to follow Georginio Wijnaldum out of Newcastle - with Everton leading the domestic race to sign him

Wijnaldum will complete a £25m switch to Liverpool later today after Newcastle officials accepted the Anfield club’s compromise offer for the Dutch midfielder yesterday morning.

Having said goodbye to his Magpies team-mates at the club’s Benton training ground yesterday morning, Wijnaldum travelled to Merseyside, where he is set to undergo a medical this morning.

With personal terms already agreed, his transfer should be confirmed within the next 24 hours, enabling him to link up with the rest of the Liverpool squad, who flew to the United States ahead of a pre-season tour yesterday.

Newcastle will have to pay a portion of Wijnaldum’s fee to his former club PSV Eindhoven – the amount, while unconfirmed, is understood to be significantly less than the figure of £4.2m that has been published in the Dutch press – and the midfielder’s departure, which follows the exits of Andros Townsend and Papiss Cisse, means the Magpies have recouped more than £40m in transfer fees alone.

They spent another £5.5m yesterday, with Scottish centre-half Grant Hanley signing a five-year deal after leaving Blackburn Rovers, but their coffers should be swelled even further when Sissoko eventually leaves.

Publicly, Rafael Benitez continues to insist he does not want to lose the Frenchman, who is due to report back for pre-season training on August 1, just four days before the start of the new Championship season. However, in private, the Newcastle boss is believed to be much more receptive to the idea of Sissoko leaving.

Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal have all been linked with possible offers for the 26-year-old, who is valued at the £35m mark by Newcastle, but it is Everton that appear to be closest to tabling a formal offer.

The Goodison Park club confirmed the appointment of former Leicester head of recruitment Steve Walsh as their new director of football yesterday, and are keen to kick-start their purchasing drive now their backroom set-up has been restructured.

Ronald Koeman is still to make his first outfield signing since replacing Roberto Martinez, and with Everton’s new billionaire shareholder, Farhad Moshiri, promising to provide significant financial backing, the funds are available to make a bid of around £30m for Sissoko.

Whether Newcastle would accept that sum remains to be seen, but while Juventus have indicated they are potentially prepared to go higher, the Italian club’s interest is dependent on the sale of Paul Pogba.

Manchester United are close to tying up a £100m agreement for Pogba, but until that deal is done, Juventus will not be in a position to make a formal offer for Sissoko.

“Moussa is due to report back on August 1,” said Benitez. “He will report back like everybody else has, and then we will go from there. We will see him on the first of August, but until then it is not really worth talking about anything because he is not here.”

Hanley was confirmed as Newcastle’s sixth summer signing yesterday afternoon, with Blackburn having finally accepted the Magpies’ third offer for the centre-half, which was worth £5.5m.

The Dumfries-born 24-year-old made more than 200 senior appearances in his six seasons at Ewood Park, having joined Rovers after spells in the youth set-up at Queen of the South and Rangers.

“I’m over the moon and delighted to be here,” said Hanley. “It’s a fantastic opportunity to come and play at such a big club, and one that I couldn’t turn down.

“It’s an exciting step in my career, but it doesn’t stop there. This is just the start, and I am looking forward to helping Newcastle get back into the Premier League.”

Hanley is unlikely to be involved in tomorrow’s pre-season game at Belgian side Sporting Lokeren, but he could make his first appearance in a Newcastle shirt when his new employers travel to League One side Southend United on Tuesday.

The trip to Roots Hall represents Newcastle’s penultimate pre-season outing, and having made a host of substitutions in this week’s games against Bohemian and Doncaster, Benitez admits things will start to become more serious as the opening Championship game against Fulham approaches.

“We want to finish getting the squad together as quickly as possible, and then we can start thinking about what we want to do with the team,” said the Newcastle boss. “You want your team to be sorted as soon as possible, but at the moment, we are still having to wait and see what is going to happen with a few things.

“Little by little we are getting there though, and we will soon be at a point where we have to start finalising the team that will play against Fulham. Soon, we will have to be saying, ‘Okay, this could be the team that starts’.”