Failed €35m move shows Newcastle’s transfer policy is a primitive joke
Robin Bairner
- 20 Jan 2022 16:06 GMT
- 3 min read
Reims supporters couldn’t believe their luck when reports broke that Newcastle were willing to table a bid worth €35 million for striker Hugo Ekitike.
The 19-year-old forward has shown promise in Ligue 1 this season, with eight goals in 17 outings not helping him shed the unfair tag of the ‘next Kylian Mbappe’ (spoiler: he isn’t), but has certainly not been prominent enough to justify his club knocking back such a dizzying valuation.
And so comes the old adage: if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
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That’s certainly the case with this bid, as Reims president Jean-Pierre Caillot explained to Le Quotidien du Sport.
“They offered us €35m in total, but with a number of bonuses, including ones that were almost impossible to reach. Like, for example, winning the Champions League,” he explained.
“We want €30m fixed price plus €10m of realistic bonuses.”
Newcastle have much to learn
It seems, then, that Newcastle’s transfer policy is about as primitive as the average teenager’s playing Football Manager, despite being fuelled by the Saudi Arabian state.
Certainly, the lack of success they have made this January despite pots of money to spend would suggest that. Signing Kieran Trippier from Atletico Madrid seems like good business – and it will probably prove to be – but he wanted to return to England. It was a move that was made easy for them.
Equally, Chris Wood was prised away from Burnley only because Newcastle matched a release clause in his contract that the Clarets would never have conceived possible.
Newcastle will simply not get value for money this month, regardless of how hard they try. That is something they will have to take on the chin.
There are three reasons for this. Firstly, January is a difficult time to conduct business for even the shrewdest operators. Secondly, everyone is well aware of their seemingly limitless supplies of money. Finally, the Premier League table does not lie: they are absolutely desperate.
Push that aside, though, and Caillot has lifted the curtain on some of the ludicrous and frankly naïve tactics they are using to try to sign players. Not even the most optimistic Newcastle fan would suggest the Champions League is a realistic objective within the next five years.
When Newcastle were taken over by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, it was taken for granted they would be able to buy their way out of trouble.
They may yet be able to, but as every hour passes, the cost of doing so goes up and the chances of them doing so subside.
