ESPN is reporting today that FC Twente have told Newcastle United they will need to pay £16M for their 21 year-old striker Luuk de Jong.
Luuk de Jong – will cost £15M
Newcastle had lodged a bid, thought to be £11M earlier this week, but it may have even been £12M, and the club had not not heard back from Twente, but if this is their response to that bid, then they can forget about it.
And the news yesterday was that Newcastle had already turned to other striker targets, with Manchester City’s John Guidetti, probably the next Magpies’ target.
If Newcastle can get the 20 year-old Swede Guidetti to the club, it would take away the disappointment of not being able to get de Jong, who is a very good player.
FC Twente do not want to let their top young player go, and the only thing we can think of, if this news is true, is Newcastle maybe could add some performance payments to the £11M – such as how many times the lad plays for the Newcastle first team, and how many caps he gets for the Dutch first team, over the length of his contract.
Twente manager Steve McClaren even thinks another full year in the Eredivisie would benefit the player, but his agent Louis Laros hardly agrees with that, since Luuk scored 25 goals in his 32 league appearances last season, and 32 goals in his 50 total appearances during the season.
Louis Laros quipped this, when responding to Steve’s request that he should stay another season at the FC Twente club:
“Luuk scored 25 goals in the Dutch league last season, how many more does he need to score? 35?”
That’s a decent point made by his agent, but of course Louis wants him to get a new deal somewhere – so he gets his money.
The Dutch Chairman Joop Munsterman has told both Newcastle, and their rivals for Luuks’ signature – Borussia Monchengladbach – what exactly it will take to get the 21 year-old to leave Twente:
“For £12m, De Jong will not leave.” “But £16m would be an incredible amount.”
Maybe that £12M is what Newcastle have actually bid, and that’s the highest fee Mike Ashley has ever allowed in his five years at Newcastle, and the very fact that the Magpies are willing to go that high for a 21 year-old saus they rate the youngster highly.
And when you consider that Newcastle will pay that up front in cash – that’s a very good offer Newcastle have made.
We’ll have to wait and see if Borussia Monchengladbach are silly enough to bid £15M for him, but we don’t think Newcastle will do much more on the Luuk de Jong deal.
What do you think?
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41 comments so far
DoctorZelig
Jul 7, 2012 at 2:03 PM
Comment #41Its not the kid that decides the Transfer fee its the chairman and the manager.
Steve McClaren thinks he can get that kind of money for the kid shows he has lost touch with reality.