Many have been left questioning the long-term sustainability of the Newcastle United project after what we have seen so far last summer. Alexander Isak had left a year ago. Now, Sandro Tonali and Anthony Gordon have also completed moves away from St James’ Park.
That is a huge amount of talent, quality and experience that has left Newcastle United. And they have not even come close to replacing them with players of a similar level.
More could follow in the future as well. Bruno Guimaraes has already agreed on personal terms with Arsenal. Lewis Hall is believed to want a move to Manchester United if Newcastle don’t promise him a first-choice role.
Newcastle United blow confirmed after official announcement
On the other hand, another problem the club have faced is their struggles with completing deals for players they want to bring to St James’ Park.
It has pretty much been an open secret for a while that Newcastle United had pulled out of the race to sign Johan Manzambi, even though they had agreed a transfer fee with SC Freiburg. That is because the player himself wanted to join Aston Villa.
That has now been made official. Aston Villa have announced the arrival of Manzambi from SC Freiburg. It is believed to be a club-record deal as well.
Manzambi could have been an excellent signing for Newcastle United. But they have lost out. The Swiss midfielder was one of the breakout stars of the World Cup.
What will Newcastle do now?
Newcastle United have pretty much paid the price for missing out on Champions League football. Not too long ago, players in the position of Manzambi were moving to St James’ Park.
Just think of the likes of Guimaraes, Tonali and Isak. There surely would have been other clubs interested in signing them but they ended up moving to Newcastle United, which was considered one of the most exciting projects in world football at the time.
A lot has changed since then. Now, Newcastle United are having a tough time attracting talent, even when they are willing to pay what is required. The Manzambi transfer saga is not the first instance in which they have seen a move collapse in the final steps.
How do things get better from here? That is the big question now. And it is up to the Magpies to find the answer to that over the coming weeks.
For now, they have been linked with a couple of Brazilian midfielders after seeing the Manzambi deal collapse. One is former Nottingham Forest ace Danilo, currently of Botafogo. The other is Atalanta’s Ederson, after he saw his own move to Manchester United fall apart at the last minute.
