Newcastle United reportedly failed to land striker Arkadiusz Milik due to a lack of will.
That’s the claim made by Italian journalist Vincenzo Morabito (via CalcioNapoli24), who says that the player just wasn’t convinced by the Magpies’ efforts to sign him.
Milik is now a Marseille player having transferred from Napoli in January.
The Italian club decided to cash in before losing him for nothing in the summer.
Newcastle were linked with a move for Milik last year (Arena Napoli) and continued to be up until his switch to France.
According to Morabito, there was never a decent chance of Milik moving to St. James’ Park.
He said (quoted by CalcioNapoli24): “Milik to Newcastle? For Arek, the desire of the club was lacking.
“There was an offer of €20m, but Napoli at that moment considered his valuation higher, around €25-30m.”
No surprises here
It seems that this ‘lack of will’ to sign Milik translates to not being willing to fork out an extra few million pounds, which is hardly a surprise.
Newcastle did end up signing Callum Wilson, but the Magpies clearly needed another addition with Andy Carroll, Dwight Gayle and Joelinton just not good enough.
Milik, who had a superb goal record at Napoli despite two bad knee injuries, could have helped Newcastle become much more potent in the final third.
He’s already scored four goals in eight games for Marseille, and it’s just another example of a failure to get something that needed doing, done.