Newcastle have been told they’ll need to pay £25m to sign Miguel Almiron according to the Daily Mail – with the club believed to have had a £17m bid rejected already for the MLS playmaker.
This initial bid sounds just like Newcastle United under Mike Ashley. Ok, we don’t tend to make bids that match our club record fee, but we are the masters of lodging offers that fall well below club’s asking prices.
Remember the Nicolai Jorgensen saga this time last year? Sky insisted that Feyenoord wanted in excess of £20m, yet our offer came in at a reported £14m.
It seems we’ll only sign a player if we are convinced we are getting an absolute bargain, keeping up with the theme of us refusing to pay the going rate – something you just won’t get away with in a world where no quality player will cost less than £20m.
Here’s a snippet from The Mail’s latest piece on Almiron:
‘Newcastle United have been told to increase their offer if they wish to sign Miguel Almiron from Atlanta United.
‘The player’s agent Daniel Campos has already agreed wages with Newcastle but they remain around £8million short of the MLS club’s £25m asking price.
‘Campos confirmed two other Premier League clubs were interested before adding: ‘With Newcastle, I spoke about the player’s salary, but the club needs to raise their offers with Atlanta if they want to get the player’.
‘Almiron is at the very top of Newcastle manager’s Rafa Benitez wishlist for January and he sees him playing in a withdrawn forward’s role, a position which has been a problem for Newcastle in recent seasons.’
I hate to say it, but the Almiron deal feels like yet another transfer saga that will end badly but occupy us for the vast majority of the window – meaning Rafa will end up scrambling for a European loan deal at the end of the month?
It sounds pessimistic, but isn’t this just the sort of thing Ashley and co. will allow to happen in a bid to navigate themselves through January without spending? I really hope I’m wrong..
Your comment about last year’s report of the 20m Danish striker who you lot pushed for says it all he turned out to be a right donkey. What do you lot know?
Whinger(Quote)
I was never sure about him. History tells us that Dutch league strikers are VERY hit and miss in the PL – and he looked woeful at the World Cup too.
Think he was a bullet dodged!
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
Just checked out the latest target Miguel on YouTube but most look good on here, thing is he has a lot more space in the MLS league than the PL. Saying that he has skill and pace as Murphy had the worry would be if he was allowed to express himself in the system we have at present.
Whinger(Quote)