Newcastle United brought Jacob Murphy to the Premier League from Norwich City, but reportedly targeted Rodrigues a few months later.
Newcastle United have tried and failed to sign Galatasaray winger Garry Rodrigues in each of the last two transfer windows.
According to Turkish Football, Rafa Benitez’s side launched a £6 million bid for the Cape Verde winger in August, and as recently as January, had a second offer worth £7 million snubbed as well by the Turkish giants.
With Galatasaray a point clear at the top of the table, veteran manager Fatih Terim was unwilling to lose another star man after seeing Bodou Ndiaye leave for Stoke City for around £14 million.
Rodrigues has been in fine form for Gala this season, scoring three times and setting up a further six in 16 league starts. But the fact that Newcastle made another move for him in January does not reflect well on Jacob Murphy’s debut season on Tyneside.
The Magpies stumped up £12 million to bring the boyhood Newcastle fan to St. James’ Park from Norwich City back in August as reported by Sky Sports but, despite a couple of bright displays, he is yet to nail down a place in Benitez’s XI.
Only 10 of his 18 Premier League appearances have come from the start and a well-taken goal against Manchester City and a match-winning assist against Stoke, although both displaying a great deal of class, are rare memorable moments in an otherwise tough campaign.
Murphy was already behind Matt Ritchie and Christian Atsu in the pecking order and, failing to appear in the last two games, appears to have slipped behind Kenedy, too.
So he should be feeling a little relieved that Rodrigues did not move to Newcastle.
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