Fabrizio Romano has explained why he thinks players are “scared” to sign for Newcastle as top target Benjamin Sesko has made his ‘final transfer decision’.
Newcastle have only signed Antony Elanga from Nottingham Forest in a £55m deal so far this summer having missed out on a number of targets.
They were said to be keen on Bryan Mbeumo, who only had eyes for Manchester United, while Liverpool swooped in ahead of them to sign Hugo Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt and United now also look set to beat them to RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko.
Newcastle have made the early running in the race to sign Sesko but Man Utd have since made their move to ‘open formal talks’ in order to get a deal done.
Transfer expert Ben Jacobs wrote on X: ‘#MUFC open formal talks for Benjamin Sesko after sending a secret delegation to Germany. Christopher Vivell driving. Ruben Amorim put forward Ollie Watkins. #NUFC remain in the race. Both hoping price drops to €70m.’
Before The Athletic’s David Ornstein revealed that Man Utd are now ‘prioritising a move’ for Sesko with the journalist adding that ‘Alexander Isak wanting to leave St James’ Park’ has ‘accelerated the actions’ of the Red Devils to get a deal done.
A report on Wednesday claimed that ‘the feeling inside Newcastle is that Sesko is likely to go to Manchester United’ and now Manchester Evening News claim the Slovenian has ‘made his final transfer decision’ to join the Red Devils over the Magpies.
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Former footballer and now journalist Jan Aage Fjortoft confirmed that although Sesko ‘gets what he wants at Newcastle’ – Champions League football, for one – the striker ‘wants Manchester United’.
And transfer expert Romano has suggested Sesko and other players who have turned down Newcastle’s advances are “scared” to join as they don’t want to be denied an exit, as is currently the case with Alexander Isak.
“I think there is a crucial point here. We always see Newcastle signing many players, bringing top players to the club, but it’s difficult to see Newcastle selling players,” Romano said on the Men in Blazers podcast.
“And sometimes some players who are younger and maybe want to develop in a different way, maybe they are scared to go to Newcastle and not having the opportunity to leave the club in maybe two or three years.
“So I think Alexander Isak can be also the opportunity for Newcastle to show that, yes, sometimes you also have to sell your players. You can’t always to keep all of them.
“So I think this is one of the points. Sometimes players are scared to go there because maybe they have to stay there for five years. And some of them in modern football want to leave after two or three years is part of the game.”
