ROY KEANE has warned Newcastle United target Daryl Horgan that he could struggle to make the transition to English football if the Magpies firm up their ongoing interest in the Irish winger in January.

Horgan has dominated the headlines in the League of Ireland in the first half of the season, with his performances having played a key role in Dundalk’s impressive run in the Europa League.

An energetic winger, who predominantly plays on the left-hand side, Horgan has attracted interest from a number of English clubs in the last few months, with Newcastle’s scouting team having paid particularly close attention to his performances.

The Magpies sent a senior scouting delegation to the FAI Cup final, which saw Horgan’s Dundalk suffer a narrow defeat to Cork City, and were also present in Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium at the weekend as Horgan was an unused substitute in Ireland’s World Cup qualifying win over Austria.

Rafael Benitez is hoping to make a small number of targeted acquisitions in the January window, with his primary focus likely to be emerging talents who have the potential to improve markedly in the next few seasons and handle the potential step-up to the Premier League.

Whether Horgan fits that bill remains to be seen, but Keane, who is Martin O’Neill’s number two in the Republic of Ireland set-up, has counselled against asking too much of a 24-year-old who has never previously played outside the Irish domestic system.

With Rangers and Aston Villa also lining up potential January offers, Keane has cited the example of Richie Towell as a warning to clubs who are thinking of making a move for Horgan at the turn of the year.

Towell, a 25-year-old midfielder, left Dundalk for Brighton at the start of this year, but is yet to make his first senior appearance for the Seagulls.

“I bumped into people at the (FAI Cup) final working for English and Scottish clubs,” said Keane. “They asked, ‘Can he step up?’ That’s the million-dollar question.

“You don’t know. Sometimes there’s a big gap and it’s a big ask. The benefits of playing in Europe and the fitness levels will certainly help if they go across. But who’s to say they’re not happy and settled in Dundalk?

“Obviously Richie Towell went over last year and he’s had one or two injuries and it’s not quite happened for him. So it’s not all this fantasy that you go over and everything falls into place. But I’m sure he’ll have good options.”

Newcastle have also been closely monitoring Genk defender Wilfred Ndidi, who is expected to leave his current Belgian employers for around €10m in January.

Ndidi is a 19-year-old Nigeria international who is capable of playing at either centre-half or full-back, and Newcastle scouts watched him in action against Sassuolo in the Europa League earlier this season.

They are understood to have returned to Belgium on a number of occasions since, and while Genk turned down a £5m offer from Hamburg in the summer, they are likely to be more receptive to the idea of a sale at the turn of the year.

Ndidi is due to qualify for a Belgian passport shortly, which will make it easier for him to move within the European Union, but Newcastle would be likely to face competition from within the Premier League if they were to make a formal approach in a couple of months’ time.