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Newcastle United tried to sign Andreas Samaris in the January transfer window, on a complicated short term deal which could have seen him sign a longer contract in the summer window.

Samaris’ contract expires with Benfica at the end of June, and he ended up knocking back the Premier League club because he didn’t feel the deal on offer gave him enough guarantee of a club beyond the summer.

On top of that, he’d been getting more game time with the Lisbon side and his agent made it clear a renewal was the desired outcome. That then became expected, but the end of the January transfer window came and went and then a couple of weeks into February there was still no deal.

Sunday’s edition of Record reports that a transfer now looks inevitable as Benfica look towards younger players for next season onwards.

The ‘notable’ Newcastle effort is covered, and it’s explained that Samaris can now start negotiations on a summer move as a free agent.

Newcastle can get their target for nothing, and this time he won’t have the Benfica option to weigh it up against.