The sporting director of Eibar has claimed that he got the better of Newcastle in the negotiations that sent Yoshinori Muto to Spain.
The Japanese forward has made three appearances for the La Liga side, featuring in games against Athletic Bilbao, Elche and Real Valladolid but failing to score as of yet.
It was made clear that Steve Bruce was desperate to move the 28-year-old onto pastures new this summer, however it seems we weren’t initially prepared to let him leave on the cheap.
Here’s Eibar’s sporting director Fran Garagarza told AS about his talks with the club, suggesting he got one over on Lee Charnley:
“Newcastle told us, ‘either you reach some figures or Muto does not leave,’
“We told them that it is impossible, a week later the Japanese forward arrived on loan to Eibar for the figures that we initially told them”.
I can’t imagine we were too desperate to haggle over fees for Muto – although this perhaps proves how quickly we buckled after initially demanding terms Eibar wouldn’t match for the former Mainz striker.
Bruce clearly wanted him out to create space in the squad – and I imagine it became a necessity as the window drew close.
Nevertheless, hopefully Muto can soon hit the ground running in Spain and we can get a sizeable fee for him next summer!
After all, it really does feel like his career on Tyneside is all but over – even if he catches the eye in La Liga.
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