We've played a blinder here. Forced Liverpool to show their cards. They have a free run at Ekitike. Also confirms our intentions re Isak. Well played NUFC. Let them have him and we sign someone else.
Well we originally thought he'd have Isak and Ekitike, and are now just hoping we hang on to Isak, with Liverpool the favourites to get one of their main targets, so well played Liverpool tbh. Solace is their are other options, Wissa although obviously not long term, is a very good option for the next 3 years.
Yeah, they still have a clear advantage over us and they have used it. Fair enough. No point trying to disguise it as anything else. But the Isak rejection and ambition to sign Pedro/Ekitike as well shows that we are serious and only intend to build and get stronger.
The Ekitike bid was quite audacious at the end of the day....not as audacious as Sheppard's ludicrous Rooney bid in 2004, but still would have been a huge coup for us. He was obviously a target for Liverpool and Slot knows we'd be ferocious with Isak and Etikite up front, so he wasn't going to let that happen. Joao Pedro was a more realistic target, but Chelsea could offer him higher wages and a chance to play straight away in the Club World Cup as well as the CL. We move on, there are other targets.
Fans : “Newcastle have played a blinder” Howe on September 1st : “we just couldn’t get them over the line, but our ambitions are there for all to see”
NUFC position should be going forward, to the club and player/agents. If you leak any approach from us to the press, then we are gone. No ifs no buts, we back out. I would also stop briefing local reporters until a deal had been struck.
If Nunez now goes to Saudi then I genuinely don’t get PIF. @Awaymag i don’t disagree but a better approach would be to do enough homework about our chances of landing a player. At the moment we seem to be like an ugly fat ****er wandering around a nightclub trying to hit on the best looking women. Elanga is about right, not good enough for big 6 (even failed at Man U), too expensive to go sideways. We keep coming back to the same comment over and over again - where’s the guile in our transfer approach? Where’s the under the radar talent? We were told two names on the continent had gone under the radar. Ekitike hardly ****ing qualifies given we’ve approached him twice already. Yet here we are mid July with the first friendly upon us and only one new player to show for nearly three years of “scouting”.
Wissa - point of reference: Callum Wilson was 28 when we signed him, and 29 six months later, which is exactly what Wissa would be. Wilson was £20m then, so with inflation, Wissa's massively better fitness record and the fact Wissa in the form of his life right now, then £50m split into 5 year payments seems a good option tbh. Plus Wissa can play winger with Isak, or forward instead of him.
29 in September and at the AFCON this summer. He should be filed next to Wilson and DCL in terms of strikers NuFC should have.
So apparently we never actually put a bid in for Ekitike and just made an enquiry before walking away. Rumour is that we are the ones that were leaking various media "sources" that we had put a bid in to get Liverpool to enter talks. If that is true then it's even funnier.
Lfc been linked with ekitike for a while. I’m not sure Newcastle pretending to make a bid suddenly panicked Liverpool into buying him just so Newcastle couldn’t get him? It seems like Liverpool werr interested in him, but 2nd behind Isak. Newcastle showed an interest which prompted Liverpool to ask about it Isak. When told a firm no, went on, best crack on with ekitike in that case. LFC aren’t Chelsea of years ago who would just buy players to stop other clubs from getting them.
Seems reasonable. L'pool also having to work through the sensitivity of Jota's untimely passing. As I've said, anybody can look at the players we're "trying" to sign and see they're decent. I'm not huge on Ekitike, mind, I think he's a big fish/small pond player - like Nunez, and like I think Gyokeres will turn out to be. I'm just hoping we're being smart somewhere and there's a nice surprise or two in the offing. Sesko seems too obvious, again. Wissa will go to Forest. As I said earlier, can see Woltemade being 'the one'. Or maybe one of the PSG outcasts, Lee Kang-In or Goncalo Ramos.
Look, I get the overall sentiment, but that's unfair on Elanga. I wouldn't say he failed at Man U. He broke into their first team aged just 19 and played over 50 games over the next 2 seasons. But Ten Hag wanted Antony (£83m), Hojlund (£70m) and Mount (£60m) instead - all of whom really did fail at Man U. Their whole club was a shambles in that period. Elanga's game mainly came to life when he moved to Forest, who were keen to utilise his skills. But prior to Ten Hag joining Man U, Rangnick said this about Elanga: “He is playing as though it is a dream come true, it is a joy and fun to watch him play, I wish a few other players would take him as an example and as a role model In all the games that he has played so far, just shows that he's playing with all the passion, all the fun and all the joy. He's just enjoying himself on the pitch and he's fully aware of his strengths, his assets, his weapons. He's always trying to play and show those weapons. This is what he did again today."
