West Ham pull out of race to sign 24-year-old Newcastle target despite having agreed fee with club
Newcastle United have been given a lifeline in their pursuit of a striker after West Ham United pulled out of a deal.
The Magpies have been slow to react this summer, and while it's often wise to exercise caution when reading names linked to Newcastle and not get one's hopes up, given the club's record of throwing up distractions to make you look one way while they work on a deal for someone else, we have got a little bit enamoured with the idea of signing Jonathan David from Lille this summer.
The 24-year-old Canada international looks set to leave the Ligue 1 side and Newcastle, along with West Ham and, of course, Chelsea, have been showing interest in the forward.
David's explosive pace and eye for goal and Lille's £30million asking price make him an ideal target for Newcastle, but it was West Ham that steamed ahead in the race.
Jonathan David's agents want £10million for brokering the deal
Now, though, according to The Sun, the Hammers have pulled out of a deal despite having agreed to pay the £30million asking price to Lille.
What has turned Julen Lopetegui's side off the deal is the extra £10million it was going to cost in agent fees. Which you can understand.
Asking a club to pay a third of the transfer fee again to the player's agent is actually gross and we respect West Ham for telling them where to stick it.
We're torn on whether Newcastle should take a page out of West Ham's book
On the other hand, if you look at it as a £40million deal, for a player of Jonathan David's quality and potential, it's still a bloody good deal.
JD created 32 chances in 34 Ligue 1 games last season, bagging 19 goals and four assists before heading to the Copa America to help Canada to the semi-finals.
We're torn as agents really need to learn their place and stop taking the piss, but at the same time, we really, really want Jonathan David at Newcastle, so we kind of want us to just boule into Lille's boardroom, slap down £40million and walk out with JD over our shoulders and carry him back to St James' Park - while shouting obscenities at his agents for being so greedy.
Would that work?
