Newcastle United looking increasing unlikely to sign James Trafford this summer thanks to Manchester City clause
Reports led Newcastle United fans to believe that a move for Burnley goalkeeper James Trafford was practically done before the transfer window even opened.
Yet, here we are in the middle of the window and Trafford's future is still up in the air as Newcastle failed to agree a price with Burnley after the Clarets doubled their asking price in 12 months.
Newcastle's refusal to meet their valuation of £40 million has left the door open for Manchester City to activate the buy-back clause in Trafford's contract.
Now, many reports are suggesting that Trafford is open to a return to the Etihad, and could even prefer that move over one to Newcastle, despite having waited for the move to Tyneside for over a year.
Manchester City pretty much hold all of the cards for James Trafford
As well as the buy-back clause, City also have a 20% sell-on fee, so even if Trafford ends up going to Newcastle, they will pocket something.
There's now another clause being reported in The Shields Gazette which dictates that Burnley must inform City if they have accepted an offer for Trafford from another club, and City then have three days to decide if they want to match it. So even if Newcastle come to an agreement with Burnley, Man City can still match it, and they get first refusal.
It's not looking good for Newcastle, who, to stand any chance of landing Trafford, must act before City's own goalkeeper situation is resolved with Ederson and Stefan Ortega's futures both up in the air.
Newcastle could have avoided this whole mess by being more decisive
City isn't expected to make a move for a goalkeeper unless one of those two decides to leave the club, so if Newcastle act fast, they can get the move completed before City has committed to buying a new goalkeeper.
There's obviously still a huge chance that our bid would force them to move early and then deal with the futures of Ederson and Ortega later.
If Newcastle had just done the deal at the start of the window as expected, all of this would have been avoided.
There are still fans out there who believe Newcastle are playing 4D chess in this transfer window and they have a grand plan, but honestly, we're not seeing it.
