NUFC mess up star striker signing despite player being keen - Mike Ashley strikes again - Report
According to the Telegraph, Newcastle may have missed the chance to sign Nice striker Alassane Plea - with us 'failing to move quickly' and 'haggling' over the price seeing Tottenham step in to sign the highly-rated Frenchman.
It was revealed by The Chronicle just yesterday that we made a £20m bid for Plea, but Luke Edward's piece insists that the Ligue 1 side are looking for closer to £27m - and in true Mike Ashley style, it sounds like we're refusing to pay the going rate.
Some may say that a player who's just scored 21 goals in French league still shouldn't be worth that much, but we're certainly not going to get him for £20m; which in 2018 is the new £10m.
As a result of all this, it sounds like Spurs are now favourites to sign him - even though the player was believed to be keen to player week in week out under Rafa Benitez:
'Tottenham Hotspur have entered the race to land Nice striker Alassane Plea after Newcastle United failed to move quickly enough to complete the signing as they haggled over the price.
'Plea is valued at £27m by his French club, but Newcastle had only offered £20m, which appears to have left the door open for Spurs to hijack the deal. The London club, who can offer Champions League football next season, will now be the favourites to sign the centre-forward who scored 21 goals in Ligue 1 last term.
'German club Borussia Monchengladbach have also been negotiating with Nice, but the player wants to play in the Premier League and his preference was to do so under Benitez.
'That should have made the deal relatively simple to complete, but Newcastle’s obsession with trying to secure a bargain means they now seem likely to miss out on the 25-year-old unless they raise their offer, something they have so far failed to do, even though it was rejected several days ago.
'Newcastle manager Rafael Benitez has once again been left frustrated by the slow progress made in recruitment this summer, especially considering everyone at the club agreed that the signing of a centre-forward was the main priority this summer.'
This just stinks of NUFC's approach to breaking our transfer record under Mike Ashley..
Can you see the logic in not overpaying for a player from the French league, or is this a case of back Rafa and just get it done if he's the player he wants?
