Remember Nicolai Jorgensen? Well, the Feyenoord striker we very nearly signed back in 2018 is being slated back in Holland.
After we refused to up our £14m bid to anything close to Feyenoord’s £20m asking price, the Danish international remained in the Eredivisie – and it’s fair to say his stock has fallen dramatically ever since.
He’s managed just 13 goals since, bagging seven in 2018/19, just five last season and only one so far in 2020/21, leaving Dutch pundit Johan Derksen to suggest he’d be lucky to get a club come along and pay his salary!
Here’s what he told Voetbal Zone about the former Toon target:
“A big-money move to Newcastle has evaporated.
“You should be happy now if a club comes to take over his salary,”
“Then you should be happy, then he will be off the payroll.
“A transfer to the Premier League will never happen again, it is best to distance yourself from that.
“Gradually, it is becoming a bit of a laughing stock.
“They don’t take (Jorgensen) seriously anymore.”
Some may feel we can’t really celebrate dodging this bullet when we went on to spend £40m on Joelinton 18 months later.
That said, Joelinton is 24 and showing signs of improvement, where as Jorgensen turns 30 next month, has struggled badly with injury issues and has had even more trouble finding the net since we tried to bring him to Tyneside.
From a £20m asking price to asking clubs to just take him off their hands, it feels like this was a lucky escape!
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