Newcastle United failed to sign a new centre-back this summer despite tracking Edmond Tapsoba for a large portion of the transfer window.
There was interest in players for that position with one player Newcastle were looking at being 24-year-old Burkina Faso international Edmond Taposoba from Bayer Leverkusen.
The 6’4″ defender had often been touted as a target for Eddie Howe but for whatever reason a bid was never made. Fellow Premier League side Tottenham also had a strong interest in Tapsoba and were at one point preparing a £39million bid.
Tapsoba has now signed a deal keeping him at Bayer 04 until 2028
It was thought that Bayer Leverkusen would have been holding out for closer to £45million and that could have been what put the Magpies off.
Whatever the reason, Tapsoba has now signed an extension to his Bayer contract keeping him at the club until 2028. Speaking to Bayer 04’s official site, Tapsoba said: “The support from the fans for the team is fantastic, our squad gets better year by year and I’m absolutely convinced I have the best conditions at Bayer 04 for a successful future.”
Newcastle’s failure to act is already looking like a costly error with both Sven Botman and Fabian Schar facing a race against time to be fit for Brentford.
Failing to secure a centre-back could cost Newcastle this season
Saturday already showed what a disaster our defence is when we lose Botman, if we lost him and Schar that would leave a very questionable defence with Jamaal Lascelles, Paul Dummett and Dan Burn as our centre-back options.
It’s a daunting prospect. Maybe Tapsoba wasn’t the answer, but it’s hard to see now how bringing in another centre-back would have been a bad idea in any way.
Thankfully contracts are barely worth the paper they’re printed on and if Newcastle decide in January that Tapsoba is their man, they can still try their luck. We’ll see how things pan out between now and then first.
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