News broke last night that Newcastle accepted a bid of £30 million, from Leicester City for striker Ayoze Perez, according to BBC Sport.
Meanwhile, the Chronicle claim the bid triggered a release clause in the Tenerife native’s contract, leaving the Magpies powerless to prevent him speaking to Brendan Rodgers’ club.
As much as Newcastle will miss his goals – which always seemed to come in clusters, at important times and in big games – the fee makes the deal a sensible one for the Toon.
A profit of over £28m is a fantastic return on a player who, despite those goals, always divided fans at St James’ Park.
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It is worth remembering, Perez was suggesting it was time to leave in March – long before the Rafa Benitez saga began – and it is likely this deal would have happened whether the manager had stayed, or not.
Ayoze Perez fee must be given to new manager
The money received simply must be reinvested, and added to any transfer budget for the new manager, when he is appointed.
It was always said, and even Rafa confirmed it in his interview with the Times, that any money received from player sales would be included in available money for players, and if that is the case, the new man will now have around £100m to spend this month.
With doubts over Isaac Hayden and several other players, that budged may be swollen yet further.
Fans will be dubious about whether the full amount will go into the transfer kitty, of course, such is the distrust of those at the top of the club.
But even Mike Ashley cannot be stupid enough to sell senior players without replacing any of them, thus leaving his cash cow as relegation certainties, and that makes no financial sense for a man that is widely considered as an acute businessman.