This morning it seemed like Newcastle United had all but won the race to sign Fulham's Tosin Adaribioyo.
The 26-year-old defender is set to leave Fulham at the end of the season when his contract expires which has alerted Newcastle as well as Tottenham and West Ham.
It was originally suggested that Adarabioyo would remain in London and choose Spurs or West Ham over a move to Newcastle, but reports doing the rounds this morning had said that Newcastle had held productive talks with Adarabioyo and the club were likely to be his next destination.
Now, however, transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano is claiming that those reports were a bit ahead of themselves.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Romano confirmed what we already knew, that Tosin Adarabioyo will leave Fulham this summer, but then goes on to say that no agreement has been reached between him and Newcastle and that he's still very much in play for other clubs.
“Tosin is going to leave Fulham as a free agent. It’s over between Tosin and Fulham… they offered him a new contract weeks and months ago but no chance to extend. Tosin wants to try something different.
“Today we had reports of a done deal with Newcastle, what I’m hearing guys is that the race is still open for any club.
“Nothing is done signed or agreed with Newcastle. (They) have an interest in Tosin, he’s one of the players they have in their shortlist for sure… but at the moment it’s not something agreed.
“So the race is still open let’s see how Newcastle will move on free agents . For sure he’s a player they like he’s a player they have in the list but he’s not yet a done deal.”
It's a bit of a blow, for sure, although hardly surprising given how early in the process we still are.
Players with options available to them like the ones Adarabioyo is likely to have are highly unlikely to make such big decision before the current season has even ended.
Still, it's nice to know that we are still in the running and that confidence is high that we could get this deal sewn up ahead of Spurs.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
14 | 18 | 35 |
2 |
Chelsea
|
15 | 17 | 31 |
3 |
Arsenal
|
15 | 14 | 29 |
4 |
Manchester City
|
15 | 6 | 27 |
5 |
Nottingham Forest
|
15 | 1 | 25 |
6 |
Aston Villa
|
15 | 0 | 25 |
7 |
Brighton
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
8 |
Bournemouth
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
9 |
Brentford
|
15 | 3 | 23 |
10 |
Fulham
|
15 | 2 | 23 |
11 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
15 | 12 | 20 |
12 |
Newcastle United
|
15 | -2 | 20 |
13 |
Manchester United
|
15 | 1 | 19 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
15 | -9 | 16 |
15 |
Everton
|
14 | -7 | 14 |
16 |
Leicester
|
15 | -9 | 14 |
17 |
Crystal Palace
|
15 | -6 | 13 |
18 |
Wolves
|
15 | -14 | 10 |
19 |
Ipswich
|
15 | -13 | 9 |
20 |
Southampton
|
15 | -20 | 5 |