Newcastle United were constantly linked with the La Liga striker during Rafa Benitez’s time in charge of the Premier League outfit.
Real Sociedad striker Willian Jose has admitted to Marca that he had the chance to join Newcastle United in the summer of 2018.
A year ago, the Brazilian-born striker was one of the most in-demand centre-forwards in European football.
Jose plundered 15 La Liga goals for Sociedad in 2017/18, 20 in all competitions, before being linked with a whole host of Premier League clubs. The San Sebastian outfit were not going to let their star man leave on the cheap, however, The Mail claiming that the former Real Madrid prospect was valued at a staggering £45 million.
Maybe that is the reason why Newcastle failed to get a deal done with Jose himself admitting that a potential move to St James’ Park was on the cards at the time.
“I could be in the Premier League. I want to play one day in England but now I am happy here. I had an option to go to Newcastle last year,” said the 27-year-old, who already has four league goals to his name in 2019/20.
“(But) I’m happy at Real Sociedad and I ended up staying.”
Newcastle have been linked with Jose since the summer of 2017 and there was obviously more to this than idle paper talk.
And with The Magpies still looking short of firepower after a dismal start to the new campaign under Steve Bruce, don’t bet against Newcastle making yet another move for Jose in January.
An old-school striker with a thunderbolt shot in his locker, he looks far more suited to the number nine role in Steve Bruce’s system than the struggling Joelinton who, let’s not forget, was at his most effective when used as a roaming forward rather than a target man at Hoffenheim.
Joelinton thrived when coming in off wide areas to link with the midfielders and it is no real surprise that he has toiled when asked to play as a lone front man against at least two, sometimes three, centre-backs.
Jose not only looks like a better fit at Newcastle, his goalscoring stats are also far superior to Newcastle’s £40 million record signing.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
