According to The Mirror, Fulham will make a move to sign Dwight Gayle if they fail to secure the signing of fellow Newcastle striker Aleksandar Mitrovic.
As confirmed by The Chronicle, Fulham are actually yet to agree a fee to sign the Serbian and it seems as though they are now considering potential plan b’s.
This is not the first time Slavisa Jokanovic’s has been linked with a move for Gayle – with them making a late £15m move to sign him last summer – however I’m struggling to see why they’d want him this time around.
Before we look at why it seems so unlikely, here’s a snippet from Simon Bird’s latest piece for The Mirror:
‘Newcastle risk losing Dwight Gayle to Fulham — if the Cottagers’ £20million deal for fellow Toon striker Aleksandar Mitrovic falls through.
‘Serbia international Mitrovic is just two days from a return to training on Tyneside – where he has no future under boss Rafa Benitez – because the long-standing transfer has yet to be completed.
‘Personal terms are said to have been agreed but nothing has been finalised between the clubs, although progress is anticipated this week.
‘Gayle is a fall-back option for Fulham, who have also been linked with Brazilian striker Willian Jose.’
I can totally see why they wanted him last summer, with him being the sort of prolific Championship striker who could’ve fired them back to the top flight, but his form ever since has been unconvincing at Premier League level – the league they now find themselves in.
Given the sort of money they’re spending, I can’t see them turning to a striker who scored just 6 times in the league last season..
Fulham eye Gayle if they can't get Mitrovic deal done #NUFC https://t.co/hmWlpyDXhR
— NUFC Gallowgate (@NUFCgallowgate) July 24, 2018
(Fancy writing for us? Send any articles/ideas over to us at [email protected] & we’ll get back to you!)
Not sure about the message here.
So you don’t think they’ll go for Gayle because he hasn’t been scoring in the prem.
But they might go for Mitro – who can’t score in the Prem?
Briaaaaan(Quote)
I don’t see Willian as being a back-up plan, but a first choice option, yet given the fact they haven’t actually done anything, like bid for him, makes me think this is a lazy journalist trying to fabricate news where there isn’t any. The story about Gayle makes absolutely no sense, other than a bit of brinksmanship to try to force NUFC to lower their price for Mitro. Why? …because they aren’t sure about him and don’t want to risk a large amount on him? …except they know Mitro, very well, and are sure they want him, very much, and they have been talking 20M-ish for weeks or even months, now, and don’t have the budgetary/ownership problems that Rafa has. So, I go back to that lazy journalist who made up a story with NUFC in the title to hook the click-baiters, …and the story has snowballed to here. Fulham don’t have to move any quicker than they are. They will get the deal done before the window closes. There’s only a few million up front for Rafa to spend anyway, and Ashley might not let him do even that. So, why would anyone rush. No story here, nothing to look at.
Peter(Quote)
we should jump at the chance of selling Gayle if we got 15m then sign wellbeck or ings perez(arsenal) origi we would get one of them for20m or less
des toon(Quote)
He’s played one season in the Premier League as a 21-year old and he scored more in that year than Gayle ever has in a PL season..
I take your point though, just think FFC fans would be VERY concerned by this if true.
Olly Hawkins(Quote)