After breaking their club transfer record to sign Hoffenheim striker Joelinton for £40m, who has scored just once in the Premier League since moving to Tyneside, some Newcastle supporters have some serious questions regarding how it was actually able to happen in the first place.
Before transferring in the summer, the Brazilian target man had notched up seven goals and five assists in 28 Bundesliga appearances for the German outfit – marking himself out as a key player for their 2018/2019 Champions League campaign.
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This enticed Newcastle to pay top dollar for his signature amid a transfer window where they desperately needed to strengthen following the departure of Rafa Benitez – with rumours that Mike Ashley himself paid for the signing out of his own pocket.
Supporters, looking back on the window, are now starting to question those whispers and have drawn up their own ideas as to where the money really came from.
Here’s what they had to say on Twitter.
Whiff of corruption about it, imho…
— Mark (@Mark191271) November 26, 2019
Yes this deal stinks. I wish the authorities would wake up and smell the coffee at our club. It needs investigating.
— John Ramsay (@JohnRam46901942) November 26, 2019
He’s going to have to work hard to try and find someone gullible enough to recoup that outlay.
— WallsendMag (@pubester) November 25, 2019
It’s a sweetener to that South American agent group imo, something does not add up in that deal.
— 71KB (@kevba1971) November 26, 2019
40M valuation is a fantasy number. I doubt we paid more than 10M, the fee is being paid in installments & the bulk of the value is probably sell-on fees & performance bonuses. The fee is undisclosed anyway. The only fact is that it was a club record signing so its 21M or higher
— Toon Army Madison ⚫⚪ (@ToonArmyMadison) November 26, 2019
It wasn’t out of his own pocket
— Richard (@Localtoon) November 27, 2019
The sales of Perez , Joselu brought in £33m
Ashley forked out £63 on Joelinton , Saint-Maximin, and Krath.
That’s £30m for all 3 so Ashley barely spent a penny of what the club earned through TV and Sponsors
— markj (@mjmark1970) November 26, 2019
