Chris Waugh has been speaking on the latest Pod on the Tyne about how Newcastle United’s failed transfer pursuit of Hugo Ekitike is still harming them in the transfer window.
Unlike Newcastle’s long pursuit of their latest signing Sven Botman, Ekitike – who the Magpies tried to bring to Tyneside back in January and even again this summer – decided PSG was the project for him.
This appears to have had a long-lasting impact on Newcastle and their transfer business as it’s now being reported that Eddie Howe expected to have more new faces before the Magpies jetted off to Portugal for their second stint of pre-season training and friendlies.
Waugh believes that Newcastle’s inability to land Ekitike is still impacting them.
Will Newcastle regret not signing Ekitike?
Yes!
No!
He said: “I’ve written about that, it’s on The Athletic now about how the Hugo Ekitike failure to sign him has sort of affected their summer plans for bringing in forwards.
“And at the minute, they really aren’t anywhere in terms of who they’re trying to bring in, they really aren’t close to anything, and they are having to reassess things.”
TIF Thoughts on Newcastle’s attacker pursuit…
Newcastle have reportedly held an interest in a whole host of forwards recently such as Jack Harrison, with the Magpies seeing a bid rejected for the winger. But after a long pursuit of Ekitike, it’s safe to say that Newcastle are now scratching around at options further down their transfer list.
It’s clear that Howe’s side are in need of some new attacking faces as they tasted defeat recently against Mainz, who finished eighth in the Bundesliga last season. The Magpies failed to find the back of the net in the loss, which is worrying as they also only managed to score the 44 goals last campaign – so it’s clearly been a long-standing issue.