Newcastle target shoots down talk club wants him to leave this summer

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Newcastle United target Raphinha has said he doesn’t know where the talk of him leaving Barcelona is coming from.

To say that it has been a rollercoaster season in Spain for the former Leeds United winger would be an understatement. Raphinha made his dream move to Barcelona in the summer but found life difficult at first, struggling to break into the first team.

Following an injury to Ousmane Dembele, Raphinha was brought in as cover and started to find his groove in La Liga, but just as he was starting to find his feet, media reports kept linking him with a move away. Newcastle‘s name was quite often mentioned as his likely destination.

Newcastle have made a £70m verbal offer for Raphinha

Recently there was talk that Newcastle had made a £70million verbal offer to Barcelona for the 26-year-old in an attempt to beat other teams to the punch.

However, as Fabrizio Romano tweeted, the reports of him leaving may be wide of the mark with Raphinha himself saying: “Fake news. Who shared that news is not well informed & not professional”

As we all know, anything can happen in football, so just because Raphinha has come out and said he’s not going anywhere, there’s still plenty of time for that to change.

Several clubs are keeping an eye on Raphinha’s situation with Chelsea looking to add to their million-man-midfield and Arsenal also keen.

Barcelona need to recoup a huge sum for Raphinha to make a deal work

Barcelona need to move players on this summer to balance their books and pull themselves back in line with Financial Fair Play, so a move away from the club may be completely out of Raphinha’s hands.

If Raphinha were to move to Newcastle he’d be in good company with his Brazilian national teammate Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton already adding that Brazilian touch to the side.

The feeling online seems to be that Raphinha is a good player and would be a good signing for Newcastle but some fans have reservations about the high valuation placed on him, and I can see where that comes from.

Barcelona shot themselves in the foot when they paid £55million for him in the summer as now they need to ask a high price to recoup that fee, and that could put potential buyers off.