Newcastle United has made an offer for former Leeds United winger Raphinha, but Barcelona is asking more, according to Spanish media.
The Magpies could face a difficult summer in the transfer market as they seek to maintain their status as one of Europe’s finest teams while avoiding financial penalties.
In-form striker Alexander Isak and crucial midfielder Bruno Guimaraes are desired by competitors both domestically and internationally, and the Magpies, who are determined to keep their best players, will have to strike a delicate balance as they embark on the latest phase of their recruitment drive.
Will Newcastle have to sell star players this summer?
Newcastle CEO Darren Eales admitted earlier this year that the Magpies may have to sell some of their best players to reinvest in the squad.
Eales stated that it depends on the conditions of each player at any given time. It’s impossible to speculate, but if we’re given £1 billion for one of those players, no one would disagree that it makes sense.
“We will always make decisions based on the club’s medium to long-term benefit. It’s difficult to speak precisely about individual individuals, but I can say that if we’re going to reach where we want to go, it’s sometimes important to trade your players.
“Whether it’s because of the player’s contract duration, the offer is too good to pass up, or you need to reload in specific areas, trading that player may make sense. The structure of the borders creates an incentive to trade your players if you wish to re-invest, which is counterintuitive and part of the underlying system of PSR.”
When asked if all players have a price under the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules, Eales replied, “Yes.”
Eales noted, “When you churn players, you create more headroom. We have seen other examples of this elsewhere. [Philippe] Coutinho joined Liverpool, and they added Allison and Virgil Van Dijk. [Jack] Grealish is leaving Aston Villa, and they’ve reinvested and reloaded.
“Decan Rice at West Ham is simply the nature of the beast. If you swap players, you create more headroom. You need to keep expanding that headroom by raising commercial revenue and player trading.”
Any sales will result in replacements, with Spanish daily Nacional claiming Newcastle has already made a ‘bid’ of €40 million (£35 million) for Barcelona winger Raphinha.
They may be in luck, as Barcelona president Joan Laporta is ‘absolutely open to bargaining for a player who considers that he has not earned the merits to have his continuity guaranteed’.
Newcastle are ‘very certain that he will be able to restore his best version’ if he returns to the Premier League, but Laporta believes their opening bid is ‘absolutely insufficient’.
Instead, the Barcelona president’requests’ €60 million, the same amount they paid Leeds for him in 2022, saying he ‘wants to repair the mistake of signing him’.
Yankuba Minteh to leave Newcastle again in the summer?
Newcastle signed Yankuba Minteh from Danish Superliga side OB in the summer transfer window for around €7 million, with the winger regarded as a future prospect.
He was almost immediately loaned to Eredivisie side Feyenoord, who had just won the Dutch Cup, and now Voetbal International insists the Eredivisie club ‘will do everything’ to keep him beyond the conclusion of the season.
According to the magazine, Feyenoord director Dennis te Kloese stated that the agreement turned out to be wonderful. We have good interaction with Newcastle, and both parties are pleased with how things proceeded. Everyone now recognizes that it might be a smart construction for such types of teams to initially rent out such players for a year.”
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