Newcastle United have not come to an agreement with Porto to sell defender Chancel Mbemba as the two parties have not agreed a fee for the transfer of the 23-year-old, according to a Chronicle journalist.
Lee Ryder, chief sports writer for the northeast publication, countered a report in The Mirror which suggested an £8million fee was being discussed, insisting that the Portuguese giants had not even matched the asking price.
Understand that Porto and #nufc have not come to an agreement on Chancel Mbemba. Porto yet to match the asking price for the centre-back.
— Lee Ryder (@lee_ryder) June 15, 2018
The Democratic Republic of Congo international is under contract at St James’ Park until 2020 but having made a total of 11 outings for Rafa Benitez’ side last season, it would seem that the writing is on the wall for the enforcer.
Mbemba is far down in the pecking order on Tyneside with Jamaal Lascelles, Florian Lejeune and Ciaran Clark all ahead of him.
OPINION:
While Newcastle fans might have been hoping to see some imminent cash made available to Rafael Benitez from the defender’s sale, they will have to wait. It still looks Mbemba’s departure from the club is imminent and will happen whether it is sooner or later during this transfer window. You would like to think it will be sooner considering the club want to lower their wage bill before they acquire players and leaving it late will only lead to clubs pushing up prices. Benitez has a wealth of options in the position so will be happy to see him leave in order to concentrate on bringing in new players. Only in the January transfer window, the Magpies were being linked with Feyenoord forward Nicolai Jorgensen but were eventually priced out of a move as they did not meet the Dutch side’s valuation for the attacker. It has all gone quiet on that front but once the sale of Mbemba does go through, Benitez will know he has to resolve the goalscoring issues.