Goalkeeper Newcastle walked away from for being overpriced nominated for Ballon d'Or

One of the summer's biggest disappointments for Newcastle United fans was seeing just how good Giorgi Mamardashvili was at Euro 2024 after the club deemed £30 million to be too much money for him.

Giorgi Mamardashvili's performances for European Championship surprise package, Georgia, made many Newcastle fans hope that the club would go back to Valencia and pay the £30 million they were demanding.

Instead, in a weird twist of irony, Newcastle ended up spending around £20 million on a goalkeeper they don't even want as part of a deal to get themselves and Nottingham Forest out of PSR trouble.

Newcastle also brought in free agent John Ruddy, who may not have cost the club anything in terms of transfer fees, but he's not at the club doing volunteer work.

Mamadashvili has now been nominated for a Ballon d'Or

Eventually, Liverpool would scoop up Mamardashvili to be the successor to Brazilian goalkeeper Allison. As part of the deal, Marma will remain at Valencia this season on loan before joining up with Liverpool next summer.

While some Newcastle fans thought that the club were right to walk away from the table at £30 million at the time, many changed their minds after seeing him in action in Germany, more followed suit when it turned out that he would be going to Liverpool, and now Marma has been nominated for a Ballon d'Or.

£30 million is looking like a bargain now, especially if Odysseas Vlachodimos is a £20 million 'keeper.

We'll put this one behind us with all the other summer mistakes

This can be looked at as another failure in a long list of failures the club racked up this summer during its transitional period.

We'll just have to chalk this all up to one big learning experience and move on.

Hopefully, once Paul Mitchell starts changing things to suit his vision we'll start seeing things moving in the right direction again.