James Trafford is heading to Man City, ending Newcastle’s hopes of signing the Burnley stopper, but it’s now emerged that Toon chiefs had their chance to land the England prospect – only to let it slip.
It’s been the same story all summer. Newcastle being linked with a player, establishing them as one of our ‘top targets’, before one of the league’s ‘Big Six’ has swooped in and signed them with very little fight from us.
But given how long we’ve been pursuing Trafford, stretching back to when he had just been relegated to the Championship with Burnley, it’s astonishing to see how we’ve not ended up signing the future England No.1
Well according to a new report, it looks like we may have lost out on the star’s signature at the eleventh hour. Quite literally…
In a grim update, The Athletic’s David Ornstein has revealed that Newcastle had an opportunity to sign James Trafford last month and beat Man City to a deal.
Ornstein reports that our window was in early June, just before the Club World Cup, at a time where Man City were ‘not considering’ a move for the 22-year-old.
However, our bid was ‘too low’ at the time and only improved when it was too late, with Man City coming forward for the goalkeeper this month, with a £27m buy-back deal now agreed.
As for the deal agreed this week, it’s also emerged that Pep Guardiola’s side had a tight deadline to meet if they wanted to match our more recent £27m bid.
And they reportedly left it until one hour before the official deadline to make their move and confirm Trafford rejoining them.
Missing out on Trafford is just the latest in a growing list of ‘almost’ signings the club has attempted to make this window.
It started with Dean Huijsen, who inevitably moved to Real Madrid once Los Blancos showed their intent.
But the fact we’ve tried to sign each of Liam Delap, Bryan Mbeumo, Joao Pedro, Hugo Ekitike and now Trafford, and not been able to sign any of them is a damning indictment on the work of the recruitment team this summer.
The potential domino effect from the lack of success this summer could be disastrous. Not only has it likely damaged the perception of the club in the eyes of other players, who may now be hesitant to move, but the lack of committed investment is a core reason why Alexander Isak is also looking to leave this summer.
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