Newcastle United and AC Milan were battling it out for Sven Botman in the winter market, but neither could take him away from Lille.
The Tyneside club’s January interest was confirmed by Lille, the defender, his agent and their chief, Amanda Staveley. The latter even stated the 22-year-old desperately wanted, and is still keen to join her side in the summer.
On Monday, Calciomercato covered the competition Milan will face from the Magpies to sign the centre-back.
Later that day, BBC had a report, titled: ‘Transfer news: Botman unlikely to make Magpies move’. They made it clear it’s not their own information and cited another source within their report.
One among them are Milan News. Journalist Antonio Vitiello goes on to state that the BBC’s report indicates the Dutchman, who is the number one target for the Serie A side, would like to play at the San Siro.
Vitiello warns that ‘Newcastle will try again’, before going on to take a dig at the Premier League side by stating ‘there is no history for the club’s coat of arms’.
The journalist adds the only thing now left for Milan is to try and find an agreement with Lille to seal the deal to sign the Netherlands U21 international. They need to do this ‘as soon as possible’, to ‘avoid the inclusion of other foreign clubs’.
This growing confidence of Botman dismissing Newcastle is likely misplaced.
