According to reliable Belgian outlet HLN, Aston Villa have now agreed a £22m deal to sign reported Newcastle United target Wesley Moraes.
It was confirmed recently that Rafa Benitez had ‘made contact’ with the striker over a potential move to St James’ Park, however the Chronicle did state yesterday that the total uncertainty surrounding the club meant we looked set to miss out on the striker. That said, it was Lazio who were tipped to sign Wesley – not top flight rivals Aston Villa.
What’s more, the Chronicle had described him as one of our ‘top targets’ this summer, even suggesting he would’ve been ‘excited’ to sign and play under Rafa Benitez after a 17-goal, 10-assist season with Club Brugge.
Less than 24 hours later and the ‘breaking news’ coming out of Belgium is that the’s all set to sign a five-year-deal at Villa Park in a move that would see the Brazilian become their record signing.
It’s also worth noting that this has been confirmed by reliable Belgian reporter Kristof Terreur, so it looks like this is more than just a rumour and actually all but done.
Considering Wesley may have been one of the strikers Rafa wanted to sign should we refuse to sanction a £16.5m move for Salomon Rondon, this could be seen as a real bitter blow – especially when Villa will be a rival of ours next season following their return to the top flight.
We’re in limbo and are now being beaten to signings by newly promoted Aston Villa. What a mess.
How can we have a top target when we don’t have a confirmed manager? Also how can Benítez have any say at all in bringing in anyone when he himself is currently leaving in about two weeks..
Craig Chisholm(Quote)
He’ll have made enquiries and tried to set things up incase he did stay. I know it sounds odd when everything’s up in the air, but he will have 100% made plans. He wasn’t going to just suddenly start looking at deals if and when he signs. We all know how meticulous he is.
I imagine Rafa made contact with Wesley to see if he’d be interested in signing should he sign a new deal, but there’s only so long a player’s going to wait when he was a big-money move to the Premier League on the table.
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
Where is the evidence that he was one of Rafa’s top targets. More rubbish 👿 from the press
Return of the Geordi(Quote)
https://twitter.com/ADMusgrove/status/1138778590399606785
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
Olly, this isn’t evidence. It’s a jurno making a claim from an unsubstantiated “source” that NUFC have lost ground. How is any of this evidence that he was one of Rafa’s targets.
Return of the Geordi(Quote)
They’ve said for a while now that we’ve been scouting him. Wesley’s agent confirmed our interest a few weeks ago. The Chronicle claim Rafa made contact with Wesley over a possible summer deal.
Fair enough if you choose not to believe any of it, but it adds up that he’s at least someone we were seriously interested in..
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
Sorry Olly, I’m not saying we didn’t look at him, we may have even made an inquiry as to his availability, price and wages,then decided not to pursue him, or it could be his agent drumming up business. But jurnos claiming we’ve missed out on one of Rafa’s top targets are way off. If the Chron are in-the-know about what Rafa’s list of top picks are how don’t they know anything about whether he’s staying or going. How many top targets will we be chasing then missing out on in the coming window to sell papers.
Return of the Geordi(Quote)
Some people seem surprised that Villa can outspend NUFC but they have the third richest owners in the PL and can outspend most teams, they will probably do ok
Colin(Quote)