Fast-forward a month and then some since Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund confirmed the purchase of Newcastle United and the new era at St James’ Park has welcomed a promising managerial change at the club as the Magpies replaced Steve Bruce with Eddie Howe recently.
With the managerial clutter cleared up, Newcastle’s new leaders can now shift their focus to the on-coming winter market window, and the subsequent ones after that. As it is even at this early juncture, several players are already linked to Newcastle with more names being added to the list.
Barcelona ‘salt of the earth’ goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen is one of the numerous players being linked with a move, unlikely though it may appear, to the Saudi-owned English club in recent weeks. Apparently the initial claims appeared feeble to begin with, but the Catalan media have since followed up on them with their customary intensity.
Sport have released a short report on the back page of today’s newspaper, claiming the 29-year-old Barcelona legend has ‘received an offer’ from Howe’s side.
Although the details of the proposal have not been mentioned, it is reported that the Germany international did not even ‘listen to the offer’ because of Newcastle’s immediate sporting plans, or lack thereof. Ter Stegen was ‘surprised’ to know that Newcastle ‘still did not have a technical structure’, even though it’s been more than a month after the arrival of their new owners.
It has yet to be established whether this is the full truth of the situation, or that Sport is merely using an outlandish rumor to take a dig at Newcastle’s new owners.
Frankly in all honesty, the Spanish sport media do not seem to be showing much interest or concern over the links to the Saudi regime, although there have been suggestions of some anxiety over another rich Premier League club arriving on the European scene.