Newcastle fans have been left confused after Steve Bruce confirmed the club failed in a big-money move to sign a midfielder earlier in the window.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, as reported by Sky Sports’ Keith Downie, Bruce described the bid as a near club-record amount but insists the player was not interested in joining.
While Bruce failed to name the player in question, he did reveal that they were the club’s number one target this month.
Newcastle’s current record signing is Brazilian striker Joelinton, who joined the club last summer in a deal worth £40 million (transfermarkt).
Lee Ryder has since tweeted to say that “the word from France” is that the player involved might have been Boubakary Soumare from Lille, but he was not looking to move at this stage of the campaign.
These Newcastle United fans on Twitter have been left confused by Bruce’s admission as it follows reports from Luke Edwards, who claimed that the Magpies were not willing to meet Hull’s asking price for Jarrod Bowen, which was only believed to be around £20m.
Twitter: @SkySports_Keith Well if they had a near transfer record bid accepted, which is 40 million if the Joelinton bid is… https://t.co/x4MDHQCnvZ (@AnthonyIAnson)
Twitter: @SkySports_Keith So why are we not in for a striker if we have around 40 mil to play with? (@dannyjcascarino)
Twitter: @SkySports_Keith ?????? course we did (@SwannConor)
Twitter: @SkySports_Keith Why wasn’t this money used to bid for a striker then?? (@gizbyker1)
Twitter: @SkySports_Keith But we can’t bid for alcacer piatek or bowen.. Yeah right Steve.. (@myoungy2805)
