Contract talks between Newcastle United and Joelinton have broken down and former Premier League midfielder Paul Merson wonders how much of a profit The Magpies could expect to get from a player who cost them £40 million.
HITC Football understands that, despite Newcastle United’s desire to retain the Brazilian’s services, there is a genuine concern that Joelinton has already played his final game in the black-and-white stripes.
The former Hoffenheim ace has already been ruled out for the remainder of 2023/24. And HITC has been informed that a summer sale is genuinely on the cards now after contract talks between Newcastle and Joelinton broke down.
Joelinton could leave Newcastle United
The versatile enforcer’s camp want double his current weekly wage of £70,000, which would put Joelinton close to Bruno Guimaraes, currently the club’s highest earner. The Newcastle bosses are not prepared to bow down to those demands, however.
And former Arsenal ace Paul Merson wonders how much interest there really is for a player who may well be one of those who only performs at his very best under a certain manager and in a certain system. Like Joelinton has in his tenacious, box-to-box midfield role under Eddie Howe at St James’ Park.
“Would you go and pay £60 or £70 million for him?,” Merson muses, speaking on Sky Sports. “Because he was a centre-forward who couldnt hit a barn door, without being horrible. They put him back into midfield, Eddie Howe has seen it with his vision, and he’s been a revelation. He has.
“But if you’re a manager of another team, he’s not a natural midfield player. So, would you pay £60 million?
Fellow Sky pundit Clinton Morrison is keen to point out that £60 million is probably the going rate these days for leading Premier League operators. And, while Joelinton might not be a ‘natural’ midfielder by trade, he’s certainly been performing like one.
Be that as it may, Merson feels that Newcastle would be better off selling Joelinton than his hugely-popular fellow Brazilian Bruno Guimaraes if forced to by their Financial Fair Play concerns.
Joelinton or Bruno Guimaraes? Keep or sell?
“It would be dangerous selling Bruno. The fans love him,” Merson adds, before reminding Joelinton that the grass is not always greener elsewhere.
“If I was Joelinton, I would be saying; ‘Do you know what? My career was going nowhere, i couldn’t score a goal for toffee, and now I’m a good player’.
“I think he signs, to be honest.”
HITC understands that Juventus and Atletico Madrid are among Joelinton’s admirers. And is there a footballer better suited than Diego Simeone’s ‘knife between the teeth’ approach than a man who epitomises the intensity and the tenacity of Newcastle when at their very best?
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