It seems Malick Thiaw was not the only Serie A-based centre-back Newcastle United tried to sign this summer, if you believe a certain CEO’s claims today.
In early August, Newcastle struck a deal with AC Milan to bring the German international to St James’ Park, with the 24-year-old a long-term target after interesting dating back to 2023, as we exclusively revealed here at NUFC Blog.
However, via a post today from Fabrizio Romano, who seems intent on letting us know all the deals we ‘missed out on this summer’, it’s claimed that Newcastle were also in for a second centre-back that ended up elsewhere.
Parma CEO Federico Cherubini claims that Newcastle had a big offer turned down by the the Serie A side for 6ft 5″ Giovanni Leoni, who ended up sealing a £26m switch to Liverpool three weeks ago.
Speaking to Gazzetta di Parma, Cherubini claims that Newcastle placed a ‘higher offer’ than Liverpool, but ‘plans changed’ when Arne Slot’s side came calling:
“We rejected a higher offer from Newcastle for Leoni. But plans have changed with Liverpool”.
“This because the offer was very attractive and because Giovanni made it clear he was very happy to join Liverpool.”
Romano seemed to enjoy summer sagas that involved key targets like Benjamin Sesko or Hugo Ekitike picking a ‘big six’ side over Newcastle, and he’s now reporting another story that paints Newcastle in a bad light.
Perhaps we did go in for Leoni, an 18-year-old who was linked back in July, but I’m sure the club are very happy with long-term target Thiaw and perhaps only looked at the Italian teenager as a project signing able to become a star in a few years time.
If he’s saying higher OFFER then its a lie. At a time when we were not sure if Isak would go this window & needed to spread our budget over multiple players for different positions (and you can see it in how cautiously we increased our bidding for all of them except for Ekitike/Sesko) its impossible we’d have straight away gone in with a higher than £26m amount for a project signing. Our guys would’ve made an inquiry as to his availability & price at best.
This Liverpool/ESL clubs supporting media circus will go on permanently. Expecting a year long saga about how Bruno misses his dear old friend Isak & is desperate to join him at Liverpool now that he’s playing at a high level again. The only deal they can get now is a swap of Vladochimos for Mamadarshvili. Same for how Tonali misses being home in Italy (and so instead of going back to Milan he’ll want to go to Turin where Juve have been coveting him for a while) & would like to leave for £25m. Every player of ours is being quizzed about Isak during international duty to make them feel bad about his leaving.
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Considering most pundits, press and agents slag us off, it appears that every player we identify or go for the precious, or should I say protected 6 seem to want or have to sign them first, you would think they’re all scared of us getting better, god help them when the shackles do come off, and it will happen at some point when people see this PSR for what it is.
Lee(Quote)
“Fabrizio Romano” I am sick of hearing his name. What cracks me up is that this guy tells everyone that he is in the know however, half the things he predicts is WRONG!
He is just another arm of the LFC Media circus alongside SKY Sport and Talk Sport…. Anyone but Liverpool for the title this year #letsbreakthepremierleaguecartel
Mark(Quote)
I suspect This is incorrect. The total offer may have been higher from NUFC but lfc managed to offer “more” to the club. Either in non monitory terms or some way the contract was setup. Perhaps reseller fee, bonus back to selling club if lfc win etc etc etc.
Steve(Quote)
newcastle went round telling anyone who would listen that isak was best striker on the planet,yet they didnt want to pay the wages that comes with,nobody but themselves to blame,doesnt matter what they ever do,will NEVER be a top club and theres nowt wrong with that,know ur place in the pyramid,dont become a joke club like spurs,Spurs thought they belonged in euro super league was funniest thing ever,they should have been so ashamed even trying to get in superleague.that was so spursy
col(Quote)
Possibly upfront percentage. Say we offer £30m paid over four years but they offer £26m paid over two.
PremAndUp(Quote)
Newcastle are massive.Until you walk over the Newcastle border then no ones heard of them,up there with spurs fans as most delusional,LFC fans have been labeled delusional but weve got trophies to back it up.Isak doesn’t care what you think of him ,he will have a winners medal next year.
col(Quote)
I heard he scored so many goals!
So Many Goals(Quote)
Ahh the seagull abusers are here again I see
Absolutely glorious(Quote)
Liverpool’s midfielders are far better than Bruno unfortunately,and the way use acted over a Isak bid was nothing short of a disgrace.And I also hope Luke Edwards gets slaughtered in the courts over his disgraceful lies,enjoy your champions league campaign it’s probably your last…Peace
Alex is red(Quote)
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz obsessed
Absolutely glorious(Quote)
Nice to see Liverpool ‘fans’ join 5under1and in looking up at us & trying to pull us down to their level. This level of attention doesn’t happen if they’re not scared & not feeling so far below us. Wonder why? Title after all is already secured right? Imagine all this, even after Isak joined their lot. How much did losing a Wembley final comprehensively scar them? Its been half a year. Aren’t they such ‘trophy regulars’ that it should be forgotten by now? I do suspect some of these might be Stadium of Plight regulars posing as a Scouse Mouse. Both tend to give away their lack of education & employment in the way they write.
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