Newcastle United have been left furious with the proposed move for the young striker Hugo Ekitike and will now be moving on to new targets.
This has been suggested by the Toon correspondent for The Chronicle, Aaron Stokes, as he spoke on their latest episode of the Everything is Black & White podcast.
Fabrizio Romano reported last month that the Magpies had found an agreement with Reims with a deal in place for €30m (£25.7m) fee plus €5m (£4.2m) add-ons.
However, the proposed deal now seems to be off with the Tyneside club and Ekitike’s camp reportedly being unable to find an agreement to finalise the move to Newcastle.
(29:00) “But you’ve [Andrew Musgrove] said in these Newcastle owners that, you know, they aren’t going to pay over the odds and they also aren’t going to be taken for fools.
“And I think there’s been a lot of talk from the club that they’re getting a bit frustrated with it. Maybe their patience is running out a bit, so, maybe this gamble by Ekitike hasn’t hasn’t paid off, but it’s an interesting one, but I don’t think it’s done by any means.”
(30:00) “Yeah, I think, you know, we’ve known for a while we’ve reported on it here at The Chronicle that, you know, they don’t just have one sort of player for each position that they’re looking at, they do have a couple of options.”
“The likes of Calvert-Lewin we’re still in talks for him, there’s a lot of talk about Broja, who it looks like will potentially go to West Ham rather than Newcastle, but I think they will end up paying quite a big outlay on a striker this summer.”
TIF Thoughts on Stokes’ comments…
It is a real shame for the Toon to see this deal collapse having spent so many months being an interested party and pursuing the Frenchman.
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The Toon were able to make a breakthrough with Reims but now it has been halted by Ekitike’s camp, which potentially makes it even more frustrating.
However, it must be remembered it is still early in the summer window and the Toon, we think, must now focus on other targets in an effort to give them as much time as possible under Eddie Howe before the new campaign.
And with links to Armando Broja and Dominic Calvert-Lewin still being reported, it seems the Toon could be eyeing a striker who will not need any adaptation period to the Premier League.