It’s one thing missing out on a transfer target, but it’s something else entirely being rejected by a target who you’ve said definitely wants to join your club.
Sadly for Newcastle United, they’re in that exact situation.
Indeed, according to Calciomercato, Sven Botman has knocked back an approach from Newcastle in order to join AC Milan. Despite the fact that Amanda Staveley has recently gone on the record to say that Botman wants to join.
“Some desperately wanted to come to us, like Sven (Botman), who still does very much and has talked very openly about that,” Staveley told The Athletic last month.
Sadly, it seems as though Botman’s desire to join Newcastle isn’t quite a strong as Staveley was making out as he now looks set to turn them down in favour of a move to San Siro, leaving a serious amount of egg on the Magpies’ face.
We can understand why Staveley came out with such a statement, Telling the world that a Champions League centre-back wants to join your club is quite a serious powerplay, but if you can’t back that up by getting a signature on a contract, you look like a bit of an amateur.
We’re sure that Botman did tell Staveley that he was open to a move, but as we all ought to know by now, anything can happen in the transfer window, and there’s a reason why clubs, managers and directors of football don’t run their mouth about who they want to sign and who wants to join the club – it can backfire.
We were all told that Botman is desperate to head to St James’ Park, but now he’s reportedly rejected Newcastle, and that, quite simply, is embarrassing.
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