Speaking recently on The Transfer Window podcast, Duncan Castles and Ian McGarry discussed several topics of the summer transfer window, and in particular, Newcastle United’s link with LOSC Lille midfielder Boubakary Soumare.
Since moving to Lille from Paris Saint-Germain B on a free transfer back in 2017, Soumare has gone on to make 71 appearances for the Ligue 1 side, chipping in with one goal and one assist along the way.
The 21-year-old defensive midfielder has been linked with the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal in the summer transfer window, and Fabrizio Romano tweeted last week that Newcastle have had a €35 million (£32.2 million) offer knocked back for the £22.05 million-rated Frenchman.
However, in contrast to this claim by Romano, Castles recently stated that, as far as he is aware, there has been no offer from Newcastle for Soumare in the current window, and that the player actually looks more likely to move to AC Milan.
He said: “There’s been a report [last] week that Newcastle have offered a deal worth €35 million for Soumare, so they’ve [allegedly] come back in and tried at around the level they had agreed a fee with Lille for the player in January. I’m told that there has been no new offer from Newcastle in this window. However, Soumare is a strong possibility for AC Milan, who have been discussing a deal with Lille.”
Would you be happy to see Newcastle make a move for Boubakary Soumare?
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TIF Thoughts…
From Castles’ comments, it would certainly seem as if the journalist is of the belief that Newcastle are not currently interested in the signing of Soumare and have made no new bid for the player, despite the fact that the club had a £35 million deal agreed with Lille back in the January transfer window.
And, considering the player averaged a disappointing WhoScored match rating of 6.35/10 over his 20 Ligue 1 appearances last season, we have to say, Newcastle could well have dodged a bullet in missing out on the signing of the 21-year-old.