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Joelinton pulled from friendly match and set to join Newcastle United for £36m – Kicker report

5 years ago
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At the start of the week, both The Mail and Telegraph said that Newcastle United had a deal in place to sign Joelinton.

That a transfer would happen once Steve Bruce was appointed as NUFC Head Coach.

Steve Bruce was announced as Newcastle United Head Coach this morning and now German media are saying a transfer is set to happen.

Hoffenheim have a friendly this afternoon and Kicker are reporting that Joelinton has been pulled from the squad.

They state that he is now discussing personal terms with Newcastle United ahead of the signing being announced.

The price Newcastle are set to pay is 40m euros (£36m) according to the German sports magazine, a figure which is in line with the previous media claims. Claims which Newcastle fans had always dismissed…

Wednesday saw an embarrassing first pre-season friendly as Newcastle lost 4-0, indeed Wolves could have scored double figures.

NUFC had zero threat up front and not a shot on target worthy of the name.

The 22 year old Brazilian striker was claimed to be set to be the first summer signing and quite bizarre if this does now happen, considering Mike Ashley refused Rafa Benitez and net spend whatsoever.

The Mag – 15 July 2019:

Newcastle United fans laughed when linked with a move for Joelinton earlier this year.

A German media ‘exclusive’ (see below) said that Newcastle were finalising a Summer deal for the 22 year old.

It was the claimed transfer fee that produced the real hilarity, stating that Mike Ashley was willing to pay £52m for the striker.

A separate ‘exclusive’ around the same time, claimed that Ashley would pay £40m for the Hoffenheim striker, obviously £12m lower but still way outside what we’d ever expect the NUFC owner to agree with.

However, Monday has now brought strong reports that Newcastle are indeed going to sign Joelinton.

Luke Edwards of The Telegraph states that ‘Newcastle have a deal in place to sign Brazilian striker Joelinton from Hoffenheim, but the need to have a manager in place is growing more urgent by the day as they also need him to give the green light to that transfer…Bruce is already aware of the names who have been scouted to arrive this summer and he will have to move rapidly to finalise their shortlist.’

You would be hard pushed to believe that Steve Bruce would have any real say in any transfers in and out, as Newcastle fans overwhelmingly assume his imminent appointment is along the same lines as McClaren, Carver and Pardew. all just grateful to get the job and willing to accept they have no authority apart from picking the team. However, it is believable that Mike Ashley would delay transfers to at least make it look like a new manager (or head coach…) has some say.

As well as The Telegraph report, The Mail are also insistent that Mike Ashley has a deal lined up, they put the figure at £36m to buy the Brazilian who turns 23 next month, three days after Newcastle kick off the season against Arsenal.

It would appear ludicrous to Newcastle fans that after starving Rafa Benitez of funds, the NUFC owner would then go out and spend £36m or so just on one player, then hand them over to be managed by somebody like Steve Bruce.

However, he has got form, spending over £80m on Mitro, Mbemba, Thauvin, Wijnaldum, Shelvey, Townsend and Saivet, then turning them over to Steve McClaren to relegate the club.

It would still be staggering if it happens, whilst spending £36m on any player would be remarkable…but only because of what we have come to expect from Mike Ashley.

When you have sold a striker for £30m and bought not a single player in the first 61 days of the transfer window so far, spending £36m on someone should be reasonable.Especially when as it stands, Newcastle have lost their two goalscorers who contributed 23 of 42 PL goals last season.

I still can’t believe this will happen but it does also maybe back up claims of Ashley supposedly being willing to allow Rafa Benitez to spend more money in the past BUT only if he agreed to have it spent on young players with potential rather than proven players with lower ‘resale value’ if impressing.

So Rafa wasn’t allowed to pay £16.5m for 29 year old Salomon Rondon who is a proven Premier League striker, was NUFC’s player of the year last season scored 11 goals with 7 assists in the PL…but maybe Ashley will agree on £36m for 22 year old Joelinton who has only the one year at a decent standard, scoring 7 goals and getting 5 assists in 25 Bundesliga starts and 3 sub appearances (goals and assists stats from WhoScored) for Hoffenheim last season.

The Mag – 23 February 2019:

According to an ‘exclusive’ from Germany on Saturday morning, Newcastle United are finalising an agreement to buy Joelinton.

The 22 year old has impressed for Hoffenheim this season, both in the Bundesliga and Champions League.

Brought over from Brazilian club Sport Recife as an 18 year old in 2015, Hoffenheim paid £2m.

Sent on loan these past two seasons to Austria club Rapid Vienna, Joelinton has made 56 starts and 19 off the bench, scoring  21 goals in all competitions.

Obviously Joelinton has stepped up on that form when finally getting his chance with Hoffenheim.

However, there is one major part of the exclusive that is ‘slightly’ difficult to believe.

German media organisation Sport1 report that talks have been going on for weeks and that final agreement should be reached this coming week.

He recently agreed a new contract taking him up to 2022 with Hoffenheim but the big problem with belief in the story is the reported price tag.

Sport1 claim that Newcastle will pay around 60m euros (£52m) for Joelinton.

Difficult to believe the striker’s valuation is that after what he has achieved so far and impossible to believe that Mike Ashley would allow anywhere near that much to be spent on a player.

Actually, near impossible that he would allow that in total to be spent in total this summer.

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