Newcastle reject loan offer from Atletico Madrid for striker Callum Wilson, but he could still go

Craig Hope loves dropping bad news late at night and on this very Saturday he waited until 9pm to drop the bombshell that Callum Wilson could be on his way out of Newcastle United.

There seems to be something going on behind the scenes at our beloved club that's putting our bigger players on edge with Joelinton struggling to agree terms, Kieran Trippier apparently wanting a move to Bayern Munich and now Callum Wilson on the brink.

Hope does say that Newcastle have rejected the approach by Atletico Madrid, but then goes on to say that should they come in with a permanent offer things could change, and he believes Wilson would be open to the move.

Is something going on at the club?

One of two things is happening right now: Our big players are unsettled for some reason, or journalists are just linking players with a move away because nobody will believe if they reported on any players coming in.

We really hope it's the latter. After all the years of negativity we've endured as a fanbase, it's gut-wrenching to see us falling back into those ways.

The discourse on social media is more toxic now than it has been in a long time and it's all down to these reports of players wanting to leave. Everyone has their own theories and opinions, and that's fine, but the internet is a toilet and people cannot debate the nuances of what's going on, they can only argue the extreme points of their belief causing fights and a rifts within a group of people who, at the end of the day, all want the same thing.

As for the actual story itself, there is absolutely no way on this Earth that Newcastle could even contemplate allowing Callum Wilson to leave this month, on loan or otherwise. We're already short in the striker department and if Wilson goes and we do bring someone in, we're still no further forward.

This one just isn't adding up

That being said, as much as we love Wilson, his hamstrings are made of reconstituted bourbon biscuits and he misses more games than he plays, so if we were to bring in somebody else and they were made of actual bones and muscles etc, then we would be better off.

The thing is, how much would selling Wilson really affect FFP? It should unlock a sizeable wedge if we get money up front, but would it be enough to bring in another player good enough to replace Wilson when there's such a shortage of available strikers out there? Doubtful.

So the business side of it makes no sense, unless there is something going on in the club that we're not yet privy to. Have the wheels come off already? Or as we say, is it just journalists looking for stories?