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Club’s official media partner exclusive says Newcastle set to break transfer record for Benfica midfielder

7 years ago
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Friday afternoon has seen an exclusive, reporting that Newcastle are set to pay 20m euros (approx £17.5m) to secure the services of Andreas Samaris.

The combative midfielder turned 28 earlier this month and plays his international football for Greece.

Andreas Samaris moved from Olympiakos to Benfica for 10m euros (just under £9m) in 2014, so if this deal did happen, it would see the Portuguese club double their money.

The exclusive comes from Newcastle United’s official media partner, The Mirror, and they say that Rafa Benitez has been working on this deal for the past six weeks, since the Championship season ended basically.

The Mirror report says that quite correctly, Andreas Samaris has helped Benfica win the domestic league title in each of the last three years he has been in Portugal.

However, he has had an ever diminishing involvement.

His first season (2014/15) saw 27 league starts and one appearance off the bench.

Then the second (2015/16) season saw a reduced 19 starts and eight from the subs bench.

Finally, last (2016/17) season Andreas Samaris started only nine league matches with another nine as a sub, sitting on the bench 21 times in total.

Also, if the midfielder did arrive, don’t expect goals to be his strength, Samaris has only scored twice in three years of league football in Portugal.

Difficult to put a price on any player’s head in this crazy transfer market but obviously Newcastle wouldn’t be getting one of Benfica’s best players here, so every chance that if the midfielder wasn’t signed, he wouldn’t create a new transfer record beating the £16m wasted on Michael Owen.

Also worth mentioning that despite being Newcastle United’s official media partner, past experience doesn’t suggest that they get value for money from their involvement, certainly not when it comes to getting privileged information.

The arrangement started with a very embarrassing pair of exclusives.

The Mirror claiming that Charlie Austin had signed for Newcastle, then following that up by stating as fact that Saido Berahino was also definitely signing for Newcastle…

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