OPINION
With reports suggesting that Diego Reyes is very close to joining Newcastle United, they must abort the deal immediately.
As reported by CalcioMercato reporter Daniele Longo via his official Twitter account, Reyes is said to be on the brink of heading to St James’ Park to become the club’s fourth senior signing of the summer.
Diego #Reyes is very close to sign for @NUFC #Transfers
— Daniele Longo (@86_longo) July 23, 2018
This is a transfer that United must avoid at all costs.
Reyes is a decent player who has played for some good teams and has gained a lot of experience in different countries and competitions around the world. He’s played in Spain, Portugal, the Champions League, the World Cup and many more besides.
However, the 6ft 2in central defender (Source: TransferMarkt) only played 24 times for Porto last season and was far from their first-choice option.
The two previous seasons, the Mexican was on loan at La Liga side’s Real Sociedad and Espanyol. In his first loan spell at Sociedad in 2015/16, he made 27 appearances, again far from first-choice.
In the 2016/17 season, this time with the Barcelona-based side, he made a more regular 35 appearances in the league season.
The question is, if he was such a good player, why did neither team look to sign the defender on a permanent deal?
Instead, they were happy to send him back to Portugal and were quite happy to pass on the opportunity to buy him.
Last season, when he ended up back to Porto, they don’t really want him and he didn’t really play regularly, so they let his contract run out without offering him a new deal. Does this sound like a quality signing?
Add this to the fact that The Magpies will now have most likely have to pay an extravagant signing-on fee and high wages because the 25-year-old is a free agent.
He is hardly the top level signing that Newcastle should be aiming for.