According to Le10Sport, Newcastle United have had a bid rejected to sign Lille midfielder Thiago Maia – the Brazilian international who has been catching the eye in the French league last season.
As with anything at this time of the year, it is not yet known if this is true (see false claims that we’d bid for Besiktas’ captain over the weekend!), however Ligue 1 is a division we’ve tended to have our eye on in recent years.
The report states that we’ve held ‘long standing’ interest in the Brazilian (who plays for their U-23 side), although we appear to have been unsuccessful with our opening bid:
Here’s a snippet from Le10Sport’s story:
“According to our information, an English club has approached LOSC for its Brazilian midfielder, Thiago Maia .
“This is Newcastle , interested in the profile of the player for a long time. A Premier League runner, coached by Rafael Benitez , Newcastle has even drawn a transfer offer whose amount has not filtered. However, the LOSC did not accept this proposal and indicated that it was not a seller for Thiago Maia . In any case, not at this price …”
Seems to fit the profile of one of the positions #nufc are after this summer. @le10sport claim offer has been rejected at price "proposed by #nufc".
— Mark Douglas (@MsiDouglas) June 6, 2018
The former Santos midfielder played 37 times for Lille last season and scored once, tending to operate in a holding midfield role.
Here’s a glimpse of him in action:
Thanks, Olly, for bringing us the latest from foreign papers. I think… But, really. He doesn’t exactly fit the sort of player Rafa is after – okay individually, but not the skill set, the experience and flair balance, nor the position being targeted. Reading between the lines of your write up, I get that even you think this one is rubbish.
Peter(Quote)