Newcastle fans were hopeful that a deal for exciting Paris St Germain full-back Stanley Nsoki was close to completion when reports emerged from RMC on Sunday, that a fee had been agreed between the two clubs.
The report claimed that although the fee was agreed at €11 million, the player and Newcastle were not close to agreeing personal terms yet.
With the club seemingly free to negotiate with the player, surely it would just be a matter of time before he is unveiled in the Newcastle kit?
Fast forward to Monday morning, and the Chronicle report that a deal may not be as close as the French outlet claimed, with the defender being announced in the PSG squad for their International Super Cup game against Sydney FC in China tomorrow.
Where this leaves the potential deal is anyone’s guess, but it highlights the fact that Newcastle have simply left it too late to complete the number of deals they need.
Claims of large budgets to spend are all well and good, but it will benefit no one – except the owner – if the money is sitting in a bank account, unused when August 9 comes round.
It has been a disastrous summer for Newcastle so far
The summer has been tragic for Newcastle, and their reluctance to move on either the managerial situation or player recruitment until mid-July is likely to see them short of quality and numbers yet again next season.
Lee Charnley is renowned for crawling through transfer negotiations, when we need them done at a sprint.
Only 10 days remain for Newcastle to rescue a season that has not seen a ball kicked yet, and if Charnley is sticking to his misconception that he can haggle for players and still have time to get everyone we need, he is sadly deluded.
Most of these deals should have been done by the end of June, giving a full squad time to adapt and get to know each other inside out.
Instead, we are scrapping around for numbers, and sticking them together with sellotape in the hope that they will not come apart when the season starts.
It is a shambles of a situation, created by a shambles of a regime.
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