Ayoze Perez was announced as a Leicester City player today, and the confirmation tweet from Newcastle’s official Twitter account received a predictable, angry response from fans.
The club claimed the fee was an “undisclosed” amount, but it is widely said to have been around £30 million.
They also added that Leicester “activated his buy-out clause” in a desperate attempt to deflect blame and appease irate supporters.
If that was their intention, they failed miserably, as the tweet received hundreds of replies, and it would be fair to say that there were very few positive ones.
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The club is in disarray, and there seems no sign of any stability returning to St James’ Park any time soon.
No manager. No signings. No new owners. No hope.
A torrid season awaits for Newcastle as things stand
It is hard to see beyond relegation as things stand at this moment, and it may be for longer than a single season next time.
Fans have a right to be angry, upset, disillusioned and bewildered.
The club has simply no direction, and is limping aimlessly along in no-man’s-land as the rest of the footballing world drifts by.
Quite where we go from here is anyone’s guess. There is just over a month to get transfer deals done, and under two weeks until the first game of the Premier League Asia Trophy in China, and we have not yet got a manager in place.
Whether supporters’ anger will translate to a boycott, which is being urged by some fans’ groups, remains to be seen. But Newcastle cannot say the warning signs of unrest have not been there.
Here are a few of the angry tweets in response to the club’s Perez confirmation: