Newcastle United fans, let’s take you back to last January, when you were freshly rid of Mike Ashley, with a lot of new money in your club’s coffers.
Eddie Howe was quickly placed in charge of the club, which has worked out tremendously well, while the January transfer window was spent finding players who could quickly integrate his plans.
Bruno Guimaraes arrived to much fanfare, as did Kieran Trippier, with both signings key to helping the club move away from the relegation zone and safely up the Premier League table.
Newcastle also wanted a new striker, and while they signed Alexander Isak from Real Sociedad in the summer, he wasn’t the first name on their list.
Late on in this year’s January window, a lot of articles emerged claiming the Magpies had come forward to sign Victor Osimhen from Napoli.
The Nigeria international is having a great season under Luciano Spalletti, who has given the striker a new lease of life, with the club reaping the benefits of their decision to ignore multiple offers for their star man.
One of those was from Newcastle, as Corriere dello Sport recall on Monday, stating that ‘when Manchester United presented themselves through direct or subliminal messages between June and July, talks were stifled’.
Then came the Magpies, who ‘in January also had a €100m bank transfer ready’, but they were ‘prevented from going into detail’ regarding a transfer, suggesting they never even got a chance of making the offer.
Since then, Osimhen has ‘discovered the sense of happiness in Naples’ and ‘has become a father’ in a city he clearly loves at a club that loves him back.
Whether he continues there next year remains to be seen, but it’s clear it will take a lot for the striker to leave the south of Italy anytime soon.
