The Birmingham Mail have gone on to reveal that Aston Villa manager Roberto Di Matteo was enraged at losing Ciaran Clark to Newcastle United this summer.
Newcastle United spent a lot of money to bring in a host of new players to St. James’ Park this summer and arguably one of the shrewdest signings made by the Magpies was that of defender Ciaran Clark.
Clark had a meager £5 million release clause present in his contract at Villa and Newcastle United wasted no time whatsoever in taking advantage of the situation by making their move.
After being convinced by Rafael Benitez, Clark did not show any hesitation to swap Villa for Newcastle and the 26-year-old has proven to be a key figure in the Magpies’ strong start to the season so far.
While Newcastle would have been delighted to sign Clark, Roberto Di Matteo was most certainly not happy to lose one of his key players to their direct promotion rivals.
The Birmingham Mail have now gone on to reveal that Di Matteo was in fact ‘enraged’ at losing Clark for such a low fee and has since urged the Villa hierarchy to no longer include release clauses in players’ contracts.
