Newcastle United now face very real possibility of losing out on 22-year-old England star this summer
Newcastle United are becoming the Darwin Nunez of transfer deals - what should be a one-yard tap-in into an open goal looks like becoming another missed opportunity.
The Magpies have had pretty much everything in place to sign James Trafford from Burnley this summer after coming so close to landing the young England star last summer.
Trafford was said to be upset that the deal collapsed last year, but is still keen to move to St James' Park this summer, and the Magpies are keen to bring him in.
Unfortunately for Newcastle, Trafford had his best season ever last term, and he helped Burnley return to the Premier League. Two facts which have made Burnley double his asking price.
Manchester City now want James Trafford
Newcastle, who are more known for taking ages to get deals done than they are for football at this point, have been taking their sweet time negotiating with Burnley, and now they are in real trouble of missing out on Trafford entirely, according to Fabrizio Romano. The Italian transfer journalist has posted on X that Manchester City are contemplating activating his buy-back clause.
🚨🔵 EXCL: Manchester City considering move for James Trafford to return to the club this summer…
…but only if one of their two main GKs leaves.
Contacts took place in the recent days as Man City have buy back clause, this is why Newcastle deal is not sealed yet.
Tortoise FC could be about to miss out on another target
Surely if Newcastle get a move on and give Burnley what they're after, City's buyback clause becomes null and void, and then it becomes their problem that they didn't act fast enough.
If Newcastle are going to hang around waiting to see if Man City sell one of their main goalkeepers just to see whether or not they're going to activate their clause, then I give up.
The slight possibility that Manchester City might want to activate a clause absolutely should not be holding up Newcastle. If we want Trafford, we should be doing what we can to get him, and as we said, if Man City don't act fast enough, then that's their own problem.
To quote @LeeDForster in his message pointing this story out: "If this happens, can we start asking what the actual fudge is going on behind the scenes, or do we still have to ‘Trust the process’?"
Only he didn't say 'fudge'.
