A couple of days ago we covered a report from Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf which stated Newcastle United had offered €14.5m for Nicolai Jorgensen and their efforts were ‘not yet taken seriously’ by Feyenoord.
Feyenoord don’t need to sell because they’re in a relatively good financial situation and their asking price was put at €25m for the Danish international.
At the time we said: ‘De Telegraaf don’t say so, but there’s probably a little room for manoeuvre there, and Newcastle would likely have to go over €20m.’
Today De Telegraaf, having listened to Rafael Benitez’s comments about Lee Charnley say: ‘The club (Newcastle) has given the impression that things are going well. But at Feyenoord they have not moved an inch and Van Geel (technical director) is sticking to a towering lump sum for the centre forward that he found in 2016.
‘In the negotiations Newcastle United have risen to over €17m. With this, the British are slowly moving towards the redemption sum of over €20m required by Feyenoord.’
Well, Feyenoord clearly have moved an inch, up to 5 million of them it seems, judging from the newspaper’s reports.
The reason we plumped for €20m earlier in the week is De Telegraaf tend to work closely with Dutch clubs, they have great connections, and it can sometimes seem they help to talk a value up.
In the summer when Davinson Sanchez was moving to Tottenham there appeared to be a constant stream of leaks from Ajax to the newspaper about non existent approaches from Real Madrid and a rising asking price.
Ajax wanted to look tough and hard to deal with, and it looks the same for Feyenoord.
If €25m was the dream figure then €20m, or a little over, was likely the realistic one, which is why we picked that amount, so it’s interesting De Telegraaf now also suggest Newcastle United can get the player for such an amount.
Other positive signs for Newcastle are that Feyenoord are looking for a replacement and the Eredivisie club and Dutch media aren’t even trying to keep a secret of Jorgensen’s desire for such a move.
Now it’s over to Newcastle, they need to move a bit more, and whether it be through bonuses or as part of the lump sum, get that figure to €20m or over.
