One player who won’t be arriving at St James’ Park this summer is Josh King, with Watford announcing the signing of the long-term Newcastle target this afternoon.
The Hornets confirm the Norwegian striker has signed a two-year deal at Vicarage Road, arriving on a free transfer following his release from Everton.
The Northern Echo reported that we were set to hold ‘formal talks’ with King last month, while The Chronicle said he was a player who’d be offered our way, however he’s ended up at Watford instead.
He becomes their SIXTH senior signing of the summer, joining former Mag Danny Rose at the newly promoted club:
Elsewhere, it looks increasingly unlikely that Mario Lemina will arrive this summer, with fresh reports from France claiming OGC Nice are in ‘advanced talks’ to sign the Southampton midfielder.
The Chronicle confirmed last month that he’s a player we’ve been scouting, while the Daily Mail reported just last week that Mike Ashley was refusing to sanction a £4m move for the Gabon international as he was ‘too old’ at almost 28.
Considering King would’ve been a bargain buy who is better than Gayle and Lemina a smart piece of business to add some dynamism to our one-paced midfield, it feels like we might’ve missed a trick with these two.
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Nothing new, we are all fully aware there is no ambition to sign anyone, and we know why!
Looks like another season of struggle even if we get taken over, as it will be too late for decent transfers.
We will be scraping the bottom of the barrel again and fighting over a few quid.
And that’s the best scenario unfortunately.
Joseph(Quote)
I’d have took King over giving Gayle a contract extension personally
Sharpy17(Quote)