When Newcastle United started being linked to Benfica striker Gonçalo Ramos at the start of the season, the Portuguese media had been claiming that it’d take around €40m to take him away from Lisbon.
Well, it turns out that a lot happened since then, especially with the player featuring for Portugal at the World Cup and scoring a hat-trick against Switzerland in the first knockout round.
So as Portuguese newspaper Record today features a story about Ramos being close to sign a new contract with Benfica, they claim the Eagles are now managing to scare away the ‘sharks’ who had been interested in him.
Newcastle’s interest is recalled, with the outlet pointing out the Magpies were one of the clubs had him targeted last summer, but the negotiations never reached a ‘successful conclusion’.
Ramos’ new contract is only being signed for him to get a bigger salary and a new expiry date.
The €120m release clause isn’t expected to change, with Record claiming Benfica now believe him to be worth €90m.
So if Newcastle are still interested, they may regret not signing him for half of that price in the summer by pushing a little bit harder.
They bought Alexander Isak instead, but with more money on offer for Eddie Howe and talk of a new striker potentially heading towards St James’ Park at some point, maybe the Portuguese will be looked at once more.
