On Thursday afternoon, Portuguese outlet Mais Futebol broke the news saying Newcastle United held a meeting with Benfica to speak about Darwin Nunez.
It was claimed that the Magpies’ chief of scouting Steven Nickson met the Eagles’ president Rui Costa to discuss a potential move.
Now it didn’t take long for this story to be confirmed by two big newspapers, as A Bola and Record both bring articles about this today.
Starting with A Bola, they bring a piece with Benfica’s point of view, claiming the club would only accept to sell Darwin for more than €50m, and only in the summer.
It turns out that the outlet confirms the meeting, claiming it happened before the Lisbon side’s game against Dinamo Kyiv in the Champions League, and adds that Newcastle have €200m to spend in January.
Record’s story brings a different stance, claiming Newcastle had a ‘denial’ from Benfica when trying to sign the striker.
It’s said that by knowing the Eagles had rejected €35m from Brighton for Nunez in the summer, Magpies official Steven Nickson now ‘waved’ with €50m ‘on the table’, but that was turned down by the Portuguese club.
According to the newspaper, president Rui Costa ‘didn’t even hesitate’, claiming there’s no negotiation for a January move as the striker would only leave now if his €150m release clause is triggered.
We find that to believe. If someone offered €100m, the player would go so it’s just a case of how much is needed for January.
It’s claimed that Benfica would only sell Nunez in the summer for over €100m, and that’s not an amount Newcastle are willing to spend, despite all the budget they’ll have by then.
Again, that’s hard to believe too, Darwin Nunez isn’t worth that amount of money, unless things change hugely between now and the end of the season.
