‘I would suggest’: Pundit believes club really didn’t want to sell Newcastle £39m player this summer

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Newcastle had a productive transfer window in the summer, spending a large outlay to bring in Sandro Tonali, Harvey Barnes, Tino Livramento and Lewis Hall, and they arguably struck gold when it came to one of these deals.

Although Barnes has now picked up a long-term injury, the winger could still prove to be an excellent signing over time, with the Englishman arriving from Leicester City for a reported £39m.

Given how good he was for Leicester over the years, this was an excellent deal for Newcastle, but it has now been claimed that they were somewhat lucky that there were external influences driving his transfer away from the Foxes.

Leicester did not want to sell Harvey Barnes

Former Crystal Palace manager Ian Holloway has now claimed that the sales of both Barnes and James Maddison were driven by agents following Leicester’s relegation from the Premier League.

“What you don’t realise is the uproar that the agents would have been causing about these lads dropping down to that level. For those two lads to be on the brink of England call-ups, would they play in the Championship? I think they’d be both pulling their hair out,” he told Football League World.

“And you could argue that they were part of the team that did it [got relegated], so they deserve to stay there. But unfortunately, when you do go back down, vultures come swooping over the bones and take the meat off them. And that’s what happened.

“I would suggest that it was a necessity [to sell them], not a choice. I think that was forced by the players and their agents, not the club.

Relegation leads to value

Both Barnes and Livramento arrived at Newcastle from relegated sides this season, and whilst neither came cheaply, both joined for much lower fees than the Magpies would have had to pay if signing them from the Premier League.

This is not the first time Newcastle have taken advantage of relegation in recent years, with Callum Wilson also joining the club after Bournemouth were relegated in 2020.

Barnes, who scored 13 Premier League goals last season in a struggling Leicester side, could prove to be a bargain buy once he returns from injury, and is a player that Newcastle may have otherwise struggled to recruit were he not relegated.