Why Ter Stegen joined Coutinho in rejecting Newcastle transfer

Robin Bairner

• 18 Nov 2021 10:35 GMT
• 5 min read

Newcastle’s ambitious transfer plans have seen them make a move for Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen – only for the Germany international shot-stopper to knock them back.

Having been recently taken over by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Premier League side have been associated with a huge number of players.

However, they have apparently been unable to make any concrete progress with the biggest stars they have chased, including Barca’s Philippe Coutinho, who has no intention of leaving Camp Nou for the Premier League.

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Similarly, Sport reports that Barcelona goalkeeper Ter Stegen has knocked back the opportunity of leaving the embattled Catalan outfit to sign for cash-rich Newcastle.

Ter Stegen, 29, was reportedly surprised by the approach and ignored the offer due to the fact that Newcastle have no concrete technical plans in place for the long term.

Having started his career at Borussia Monchengladbach, Ter Stegen moved to Barcelona in 2014 and has gone on to play close to 300 first-team games for the Camp Nou outfit, having initially spent his first two seasons as the understudy keeper, only playing in cup matches.

He is now regarded as one of the finest keepers in the world, albeit he has been eclipsed at international level by Manuel Neuer.

Why Newcastle are struggling to make transfer progress

Ter Stegen’s decision to turn down Newcastle represents a significant blow to the Premier League club, who have thus far found it hard to make progress to lure major stars to the club.

In part, this has been because of the risk generated by making a transfer in January, while it is a period in which clubs are also reticent to sell, especially in what is a stagnant transfer market.

Newcastle’s situation in the Premier League does not help matters. They are winless through 11 matches and five points short of safety. Any January additions will have to be prepared to face a major relegation battle.