Newcastle have now lost out on transfer despite talks at SJP
When you’re chasing the kind of players Newcastle United are, actually signing them cannot be easy.
Indeed, back in the Champions League next season and with an outstanding project to offer potential recruits, the pool of players actually good enough to play for Newcastle is getting smaller.
As a result of shopping in elite transfer markets, expect elite competition.
Rival interest from other European giants is a natural consequence of the improvement Newcastle have made.
Sometimes, they’ve won out, such as signing Sven Botman ahead of AC Milan and Bruno Guimaraes ahead of Arsenal.
Now, however, they appear to have lost one.
Kim min-Jae decides to join Bayern Munich
According to Foot Mercato, Napoli defender Kim min-Jae has now decided to join Bayern Munich.
The South Korea international was said to have been Eddie Howe’s leading target defensively, with the player’s representatives thought to have held talks at St James’ Park at some point last season.
Still, it is reportedly Bayern who have beaten all of Newcastle, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain to the punch.
Bayern will seemingly pay the player’s release clause worth an apparent £42m in order to sign Kim from Serie A champions Napoli.
Kim would have been nice but Newcastle can’t compete with those wages
The report suggests Kim is in line to receive ten million euros a year in Germany, which translates to roughly £8.5m.
Weekly, that would be more than £160k-per-week, which is surely too rich for Newcastle’s blood at the moment.
Indeed, they are believed to want to keep their current wage structure in tact and the current top earner is said to be Kieran Trippier on around £100k-per-week.
At this relatively early stage of the PIF era, Newcastle aren’t always going to be beating European giants to big signings. That is something we will just have to get used to.
