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?

(Fancy writing for us? Send any articles/ideas over to us at [email protected] & we’ll get back to you!)

About Olly Hawkins

As a Junior Magpie since birth and season ticket holder, I eat, sleep and breathe all things NUFC! Here at the blog, I aim to bring you news, views, match reports and transfer exclusives as and when I get them.

2 thoughts on “NUFC mess up star striker signing despite player being keen – Mike Ashley strikes again – Report

  1. INteresting slant.

    He had the options of Newcastle, Spurs and BMG.

    He fancied Prem footy so went for Spurs. And of course it’s Ashleys fault.

    We’ve been talking about Plea for 2 weeks now so it’s not like it was a hush hush approach for a player that nobody knows about.

    On the one hand we think we’re a huge club and can attract the biggest stars – on the other we’re concerned we’re at risk of heading back to the Championship.

    Given the choice of Spurs or Newcastle, and the associated wages, who do you think Plea would REALLY want to play for

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  2. How on Earth Rafa is still here with Scrooge Ashley and his baldy pet Charnley is a mystery

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