What Newcastle were doing privately when Eddie Howe praised Malick Thiaw to the media

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Newcastle United’s interest in Malick Thiaw could be coming to an end, despite the 22-year-old previously looking likely to arrive at St James’ Park.

With the Magpies eager to sign a right-sided centre-back to be Fabian Schar’s long-term successor, Malick Thiaw appeared to be Newcastle United‘s top target.

He was the name that kept cropping up in the media, and a deal did not seem to be massively difficult. AC Milan wanted £35million for Thiaw, which is not a ridiculous amount of money, and certainly affordable for Newcastle.

On top of that, there was no mention of any other interest in the Germany international, while AC Milan had already brought in a possible replacement by signing Strahinja Pavlovic.

What Eddie Howe said about Malick Thiaw

It was all looking fairly positive, with Newcastle in talks with Thiaw’s agent.

Then Eddie Howe even spoke to the media about Thiaw, and was nowhere near as shy as he normally would be when it comes to talking about other teams’ players.

During Newcastle’s pre-season trip to Japan, Howe was asked about the situation regarding the Magpies’ interest in Thiaw.

“There’s no updates on that,” he said.

“I’m always reluctant to comment on these things, but he’s a player I know about, of course I do, from our games in the Champions League against Milan and and yeah, he’s a very good player, but that’s it.”

What was already going on behind the scenes at Newcastle

Howe hardly declared his love for Thiaw and told listeners what shirt number he would wear on Tyneside, but his comments were interesting. He spoke glowingly about Thiaw, as Newcastle continued their pursuit of a centre-back.

However, Thiaw was not the only centre-back that Newcastle were pursuing at the time.

According to the Athletic, Newcastle had already started work on trying to sign Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace when Howe described Thiaw as a ‘very good player’ to the media.

So perhaps it was a bit of smoke and mirrors from the Magpies, which is nothing new when it comes to Newcastle’s business in the transfer market.

Newcastle kept their Sandro Tonali talks quiet

They tried to misdirect everyone 12 months ago when they went in search of a marquee midfielder following Champions League qualification.

Newcastle made a move for Nicolo Barella, and rumours of the Magpies’ interest in the Italy international sent Toon fans crazy. It would have been an amazing deal, as Barella was and still is one of the best midfielders in Europe.

But it quickly became clear to Newcastle that Barella would be too expensive. Instead, they used the media storm surrounding him to make their move for Sandro Tonali.

By the time it came out in the media, a deal to sign the 24-year-old from AC Milan was pretty much done.

Newcastle moving for Guehi instead of Thiaw

It is a slightly different situation with Marc Guehi, who looks set to join Newcastle instead of Thiaw.

But it is another case of Newcastle spinning a lot of plates in the background and keeping their business out of the public eye.

While Thiaw was a player of interest, maybe Guehi was the top target all along. News of Newcastle’s first approach for Guehi emerged on August 2nd, and now Toon officials are confident about a deal.

This one is moving fast, with Guehi keen to sign for Newcastle United. As for Thiaw, he looks set to remain at the San Siro.