Newcastle have had a bid rejected for Swansea defender Federico Fernandez, according to a reliable journalist.
Mark Douglas, a senior journalist with the Chronicle, delivered the bad news to Newcastle fans via his Twitter account on Thursday lunchtime – just hours from the 5pm deadline.
He added that his sources had said it was “miles below” the club’s valuation of £10m.
However, talks are ongoing and Swansea do want to move the player on before the transfer deadline.
Understand #nufc have had a bid turned down for Swansea defender Federico Fernandez.
Sources in South Wales say it's "miles below" £10m valuation.
They say talks not totally dead yet as Swans are looking to wages off the books…
— Mark Douglas (@MsiDouglas) August 9, 2018
OPINION
This is set to be a game of brinksmanship, but if Swansea are expecting Newcastle and Mike Ashley to blink first they might be very sorely disappointed. Newcastle might want Fernandez and they might be desperate to get some deals over the line this afternoon, but they aren’t going to pay anywhere near £10million for Fernandez. Not unless a consortium buys Newcastle and kicks Ashley out this afternoon. Some compromise is surely there to be found but we can’t see Newcastle going over £5million and unless Swansea re just trying to eke as much out of them as possible, that could be too big a gap to surmount. Newcastle are still in talks so the deal has still got legs but it needs to be sorted out pretty quickly if it’s going to go through in time. Benitez must be seething at how this window has turned out. And praying that he gets something, anyone, through the door before 5pm.