'Here we go': Newcastle United miss out on yet another summer transfer target - Fabrizio Romano
Newcastle United now look to have missed out on what looked to be the easiest deal of the summer thanks to their penchant for procrastination.
We are absolutely raging right now, and this one isn't even about Alexander Isak!
At 10:36 am, The Telegraph's Luke Edwards posted on X that Newcastle were back in the hunt for James Trafford with an offer including Martin Dubravka winging its way to Burnley, after it looked like Manchester City were all set to spoil our fun.
Ten minutes later and that post has been deleted by Edwards because Fabrizio Romano posted an entirely different update.
Manchester City opted for action over waiting
According to Romano, James Trafford is now heading back to Manchester City after they activated their buy-back clause and Trafford has opted to return from whence he came rather than sign for the club he'd allegedly been pining for for 12 months.
🚨🔵 EXCLUSIVE: Manchester City agree deal to sign James Trafford as new goalkeeper, here we go!
Deal in place with Burnley under value of £40m buy back clause. Trafford said yes to Man City as Pep Guardiola wanted him.
Newcastle are also informed about Trafford’s decision.
Tonic water isn't as bitter as I am right now!
Even if Edwards' information had been accurate and Newcastle had made a bid, Man City still had 72 hours to match it anyway, so the odds were stacked very much against us. Our only leverage was that Trafford was meant to be an option for City if Ederson or Stefan Ortega left.
It seems City didn't want to wait around to find out. I wonder what that feels like.
Adding insult to injury, David Ornstein broke down the numbers on the deal, and City, thanks to their clauses got a bargain. Ornstein also claims City matched the terms offered by Newcastle and Trafford opted for Pep.
So, after having everything but the agreement of a fee in place for a year, Newcastle still managed to mess things up and miss out on yet another summer target. Bravo.
