Breaking this down and you’re quite right in some respects. We wanted 150m and got 130m because they offered 110m. We effectively negotiated half way. I agree we would have liked to play hardball but we are talking serious amounts of money here. And not PIF levels. NUFC levels. Wissa. We got screwed but only because Brentford have lost two serious player who scored goals. As such we can’t blame them for wanting top dollar for him. If we get 3 good years out of him with 10 to 15 goals a season and we sell him to Saudi for 30m when he is 32 it’s a good deal. I totally agree with the Osula one….. well to a degree. He isn’t worth anywhere near 28m. But we have an issue with AFCON and Wissa is unavailable. As such although I wanted shot of him for the big fee. We have to be careful of injuries.
This isn’t a dig. It’s a question. But to all the people who wanted us to be Billy big bollocks over the Isak deal. Are you satisfied with the outcome. I’m not interested in what we have all said in the past I want to know if you think the club have handled it well and do we come out with the right outcome. Me personally I thought we would deal at the 130m earlier so we could strengthen. But maybe the plan was to delay as much as possible because we needed replacement we couldn’t get in. I am convinced the deal was agreed weeks ago and Liverpool allowed us time to replace him.
Everyone other than nufc increase the asking price as the deadline approaches. Brentford did what Newcastle should have. Osula is not a striker, turning nose up at that price is a mistake.
I can see why the Osula sale was blocked. On Saturday night I was pretty set in my mind that he's useless. Maybe nerves, and lack of good forward play by the whole front line - and attacking play from midfield - impacted him particularly negatively. But there's no cover for our new fab two. Gordon can't play well as centre forward and neither can Barnes. Overall, we're better for our summer trading. As an aside to Awaymag - I've been told that the plans for our new stadium are being finalised for the Leazes Park site and the construction tenders are being worked on presently. This was shared to me recently via a friend/ engineering contact. There may be some truth in it but who knows.
It's what it is, the Isak situation had become totally toxic and he had to go. In terms of losing Isak and Wilson and getting Woltermade and Wissa, I'm happy. We had rumours of Dominic Calvert-Lewin all summer, so this is a ****load better than that. Also keeping Osula as back up is a good thing for me.
Wissa still not announced. PL trying their very best to find a reason why the registration wasn't completed properly?