There’s terrible news for West Ham as Newcastle United agree a whirlwind £60m deal for midfield star as domino effect becomes clear.
It seems mega rich Newcastle United are ready to start spending big money in the transfer market and it my have a big impact on West Ham.
West Ham fans who have followed the transfer windows since Eddie Howe’s arrival at Newcastle will know that wherever the Hammers go, the Magpies seem to follow.
At one stage last summer Newcastle’s interest in West Ham’s transfer dealings and targets was described as an ‘obsession’.
Howe even tried to hijack West Ham’s deals for both Alphonse Areola and Nayef Aguerd at the 11th hour.
Newcastle also rivalled West Ham’s reported attempts to sign several other stars including Jesse Lingard, Sven Botman and Diego Carlos before taking Hammers youngster Harrison Ashby to St James’ Park.
Terrible news for West Ham as Newcastle agree whirlwind £60m deal for midfield star as domino effect becomes clear
Well now, after qualifying for the Champions League, it is Newcastle leading while West Ham follow it seems.
News broke yesterday that Newcastle had gone big for AC Milan and Italy star Sandro Tonali.
And there’s terrible news for West Ham as Newcastle agree a whirlwind £60m deal for the midfield star as the domino effect becomes clear.
Widespread reports from the likes of The Athletic claim Newcastle have agreed to sign 23-year-old defensive midfield ace Tonali for £60m. Reports state the deal and personal terms are agreed and fine details are being finalised.
Magpies have just dealt a major blow to Moyes’ alleged Rice succession plan
And that has a direct impact on West Ham’s transfer plans. Because Milan now want to use some of that money to replace Tonali with longstanding Hammers target Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
The Lazio and Serbia midfield star has long been touted as the man West Ham want to sign to replace Declan Rice.
Indeed the player’s agent had even been instructed to start brokering a deal for around £35m with the likes of West Ham ahead of the summer window because his contract runs out next year.
But Newcastle have inadvertently dealt a crushing blow to West Ham’s alleged Rice succession plans with the move for Tonali.
Back to the drawing board for West Ham midfield rebuild?
Because now La Repubblica report that Milan are in for Milinkovic-Savic as Tonali’s replacement.
While West Ham have been linked with a host of other midfield targets, none possess similar all round attributes to Rice like Milinkovic-Savic.
Players like Joao Palhinha and Edson Alvarez are excellent defensive midfielders. But they are not as proficient going forward and in driving their team up the pitch as Rice and the Lazio man have proved to be.
As if scuppering West Ham’s transfer plans was not enough, Newcastle were even linked with a move for Hammers hero Lucas Paqueta yesterday.
Although the timing of that link looks like it was engineered to have Milan thinking Newcastle might take the money off the table for Tonali.
So it seems Moyes will have to pursue other targets if Newcastle, as expected, pull off this Tonali deal.
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