Newcastle ended January without a single senior signing, with FFP concerns limiting the club’s ability to land key targets or sanction expensive loan moves.
However, this isn’t the first time we’ve ‘missed out’ over the years, with a long list of familiar names coming close to arriving with no cigar.
Here’s some of the forgotten transfer sagas and Toon targets who never actually signed, despite constant links with a move to St James’ Park:
Bafetimbi Gomis
Back in 2008, it was revealed that Kevin Keegan, assistant Terry McDermott and director of football Dennis Wise were flown to France via Mike Ashley’s private jet to watch the Saint-Etienne striker dubbed the ‘new Didier Drogba.’
He ended up signing for Lyon the year after, but that didn’t end our interest. The BBC revealed that we’d agreed an £8m deal for the Ligue 1 star in 2013. However, we failed to agree personal terms and he ended up at Swansea the following season.
Following stints in Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the 38-year-old now plays in Japan for J1 League club Kawasaki Frontale.
Bas Dost
Looking back, the first link to the 6ft 5 giant was back in April 2012, when he was a young striker scoring goals for fun at Herenveen. He joined Wolfsburg a few months later and there wasn’t a year we weren’t linked with the Dutchman over the next four seasons!
It’s thought former scout Graham Carr was a huge fan of the big man, who was the subject of a ‘club-record’ bid in 2017 after 31 goals in his debut season at Sporting Lisbon. Did he sign? Did he heck! Despite the links continuing for the next year.
Today, the 34-year-old is back in his homeland playing for Eredivisie side NEC Nijmegen, where he’s managed three goals and two assists in eight appearances. Still got it!
Tranquillo Barnetta
To this day, some people wonder if he’s still stuck in the Jesmond Dene hotel waiting for Alan Pardew to get him ‘over the line.’ His eight-year contract has finally expired now Tranquillo, it’s safe to come out!
He was lined up as Joey Barton’s replacement ahead of the 2011/12 season but it didn’t happen. Who did we get instead? Gabriel Obertan.
Over a decade on, the 38-year-old has hung up his boots after retiring at Swiss side St. Gallen following the 2018/19 season.
Honourable mentions
- Douglas (FC Twente)
- Clement Grenier (Lyon, Guingamp)
- Mevlut Erdinc (PSG)
- Kevin Gameiro (Lorient, PSG, Atletico Madrid)
- Hamza Choudhury (Leicester)
- Nicolai Jorgensen (Feyenoord)
- Erik Pieters (PSV)
- Saido Berahino (West Brom)
- Aly Cissokho (Lyon)
- Per Skjelbred (Rosenborg)
- Brett Emerton (Blackburn)
- Alexandre Lacazette (Lyon)
- Luka Modric (Dinamo Zagreb)
I do miss the Ashley transfer windows, where we were linked the the same handful of players every single year, for about 10 years.
Blows my mind that Bafetimbi Gomis, Tranquillo Barnetta, Bas Dost, Douglas and Mevlut Erdinc never kicked a ball for us between them.
— GW (@gw850) February 1, 2024
