A lot of Newcastle United fans have responded to Keith Downie’s tweet about the Toon having a bid accepted by Lille for Boubakary Soumare only for the player to turn them down.
Steve Bruce confirmed in his press conference that the Toon bid close to their record transfer for an unnamed player but that he did not want to join. (9:46)
Do you believe this story?
Yes, the player turned them down
No, where has the money gone?
Downie then asked around and has come up with Soumare as the player in question.
This has received a cautious response from many Toon fans who do not believe this story.
I’ve just had mystery man Soumaré confirmed by a high-level source at Lille. The total deal agreed was £45m including bonus add-ons. Understand Newcastle could revisit this in the summer #NUFC https://t.co/0EScc3mnPK
— Keith Downie (@SkySports_Keith) January 31, 2020
Usual tried and failed stories now following on from takeover talks. Hard not to be cynical #nufc
— Mark Tserkezie (@MTserkezie) January 31, 2020
How convenient
— Thomas Gilroy (@Gilroy13Gilroy) January 31, 2020
Wow £45m why can’t they do that with a striker
— ??????? ???? (@mickey_marr) January 31, 2020
Newcastle utd is a circus,and we all know who the clowns are.
— MSW (@Toonattics) January 31, 2020
Just couldn’t get it over the line, then the money disappears? #ASHLEYOUT
— Tony Shaw (@shawt1974) January 31, 2020
Other Newcastle fans are baffled that they have not bid half of that fee for Jarrod Bowen.
So we don’t bid 20 mil for #Bowen and bid 45 mil for a midfielder when scoring goals is our main problem…. Slow claps for charnley and brucie ??
— Rebel_warrior (@uttamkaul) January 31, 2020
20mil for Bowen though…
Also that would be our Striker fund dead ?
— Matthew (@JB4t00n) January 31, 2020
how come they’re happy to pay 45m for this unknown player and not 20m for Bowen? ??????
— Elliot Thompson (@EllT99) January 31, 2020
What do we think?
The 20-year-old midfielder was also linked with moves to Manchester United and Chelsea and is valued at £19.8m by Transfermarkt.
This season he has played 28 matches for Lille and averages a rating of 6.52 from WhoScored.
It seems odd that the Toon would make this bid for another central midfielder, and yet they will not pay £20m for Bowen?
The 23-year-old has scored 16 goals this season and looks to be joining West Ham.
If Downie’s report is true, then why were Newcastle’s board willing to sanction a move for a young French midfielder but not a young English goalscoring winger?
It all seems a bit strange.