Newcastle were unable to lure midfielder Boubakary Soumare from Lille on transfer deadline day, with The Sun reporting that the 20-year-old turned down a move to Tyneside despite the Ligue 1 club accepting a £35m offer from the Magpies.
This morning, French media outlet L’Equipe claimed [via @RBairner on Twitter] that the St James’ Park club asked Allan Saint-Maximin to contact the France under-21 international via FaceTime and show him the Geordies’ training facilities in order to persuade him to sign, with Soumare declining Newcastle’s advances.
Newcastle got Allan Saint-Maximim to FaceTime Lille's Boubakary Soumare to show him the club's facilities in a bid to get him to sign, L'Equipe reports.
The young midfielder politely declined. #NUFC
— Robin Bairner (@RBairner) February 1, 2020
The topic of the Magpies’ training facilities has been a bone of contention for some in the past, with Chronicle Live reporter Andrew Musgrove calling for improvements in that regard in a column for the newspaper last year. As shown in a tweet by @TheGingerPirlo_, Newcastle’s players cool down after training by bathing in a paddling pool rather than purpose-built ice baths.
According to Sky Sports, the Lille midfielder was also linked with Manchester United and Chelsea in the January transfer window. After seeing Robin Bairner’s tweet about Saint-Maximin using FaceTime to speak to Soumare, these Newcastle fans on Twitter seemed rather unimpressed:
Wonder why 🤣 pic.twitter.com/XeoETe3xBS
— Oscar Martinez (@Oscar_AshleyOut) February 1, 2020
Do you laugh or cry
— 🤘🤙🖖VG1⚫⚪⚫⚪ (@vangary1) February 1, 2020
Why would you even think about “showing off” the clubs training facilities?! Surely, surely, the only place to FaceTime is St James’ Park?!
— Mohsin Khan (@mkhan185) February 1, 2020
Time to invest in higher spec padding pools and wheelie bins
— Daniel Garrahan (@DanGarrahan) February 1, 2020
The Asda paddling pool that we class as an ice bath obviously didn’t do the trick
— Steven Ions (@ions316) February 1, 2020
I would also turn down a move to Newcastle if i saw the training facilities they have 😂
— Daniel Driveklepp (@DDriveklepp) February 1, 2020
If this is true, it’s a real indictment of how detached from reality the management of our club is.
— NotSoLocalHero (@NotSoLocalHero) February 1, 2020
— Dave Hardy (@Dave_Hardy09) February 1, 2020
No wonder he turned us down
— Dan Wearmouth (@danwearmouth) February 1, 2020
What do you make of the report about Saint-Maximin being asked to showcase Newcastle’s training facilities to try and persuade Soumare to sign for the Magpies? Comment below with your views!
