Even though Newcastle United are named as one of the favourites to sign Marcos Leonardo from Santos, it seems there are people who don’t believe that’d be a good destination for him.
Earlier this week, we covered a story which said the Brazilian club are only set to analyse the bids for the striker next year, as they’re having an election in December and only their new president will handle negotiations for his sale.
Ricardo Agostinho, one of the candidates, was now interviewed by Diario do Litoral. And with Marcos Leonardo being one of the hottest topics at Santos these days, he couldn’t avoid being asked about the wonderkid’s future.
“No, absolutely not. Our stance is that either he agrees a contract with us with these triggers or he goes to a top club in Europe. And it doesn’t make sense for him to play for a small club, with all due respect, or to play for Newcastle or something like that.
“So why is he going to play for Almeria? Why is he going to play for Braga? He has to play for similar clubs there, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, similar clubs to Santos. Anything other than that isn’t good for him and financially it won’t be that different because we have plans that if he works hard, if he dedicates himself, he’ll earn very well, he’ll help the club a lot.”
There are many reasons why that could be seen as a poor statement from the candidate, and the first of them is that Newcastle’s economic power could mean that they’ll sit to negotiate in the future.
So that’s a way to leave a bad impression before he even gets the chance of becoming Santos’ new president.
