Why Newcastle want Wolves’ Strand Larsen for £60m and why Mateta is their next target
Why are Newcastle set to make a third offer of £60m for Jorgen Strand Larsen? Why have Wolves rejected £55m? And why is a bid for Jean-Philippe Mateta in the post?
An awful lot had to happen after Strand Larsen had toiled up front in four consecutive defeats to Bournemouth, Everton, West Ham and Ipswich in mid-December for Newcastle to be preparing a third offer of £60m to prise him away from Wolves at the end of the summer transfer window.
Vitor Pereira replaced Gary O’Neil as Wolves boss soon after those defeats, with eight of Strand Larsen’s 14 Premier League goals coming under the Portuguese. ‘Certain clauses’ were met in his loan from Celta Vigo to make his move permanent for £23m at the end of the season. And most significantly, Newcastle have failed to sign their first, second, third or fourth top striker targets as they now work their way down the Premier League top scorers list from last season.
Chelsea stole in to beat them to Joao Pedro before an offer could be made. They made more progress in their bid to sign Hugo Ekitike only for Liverpool to pinch the Frenchman, and got even further along in the process to land Benjamin Sesko before Manchester United muscled in. Yoane Wissa is pulling an Alexander Isak to force a move to St James’ Park, but downing tools only appears to have strengthened Brentford’s resolve to make him stay.
READ MORE: Isak tops best available striker ranking as desperate Newcastle given nine possible replacements
Newcastle have been at pains to point out that Strand Larsen is NOT a replacement for Alexander Isak, who they continue to insist isn’t for sale despite his refusal to play or train. And the Liverpool target will be as disappointed as anyone by his club’s quite extraordinary struggle to sign any striker, let alone the two they’ve wanted in this transfer window.
A £50m bid was rejected by Wolves on Monday, a second worth £55m snubbed on Wednesday and a third of £60m is reportedly in the post. Strand Larsen ‘has been very clear that he wants this deal to go through’, but unlike Wissa, is ‘not agitating’ for an exit, according to The Athletic’s David Ornstein.
He may not be desperate, but Newcastle are. They are currently relying on William Osula to lead their line for their next three matches courtesy of Anthony Gordon’s madness against Liverpool. And although Osula scored a fine first Premier League goal in that game to offer us brief hope of the most delightful middle finger to Isak and Liverpool before Rio Ngumoha ruined our fun, him being their only available senior striker and not starting their opening two Premier League games suggests Eddie Howe doesn’t view him as a solution. And even if he does, they obviously need another No.9, particularly in a Champions League season.
Wolves can smell the desperation like the rest of us. And while we’ve all baulked at them rejecting such significant bids for a player they signed for £23m and is valued at barely more than that on Transfermarkt, director of football Domenico Teti knows he has Newcastle over a barrel.
He’s not only aware of their hopeless search for a striker, but is in talks with someone we can only assume has little more in their negotiating armoury than increasing the price like yer da would end up doing when ‘haggling’ for a rug in a Middle Eastern market.
Newcastle’s lack of a sporting director this summer goes a long way to explaining the balls up, along with the current most basic transfer tactic of moving on from a striker who scored 19 Premier League goals in Wissa to the next best thing, excluding a push for 29-year-old Ollie Watkins, which may yet come.
“If it’s my decision, of course [Strand-Larsen stays].” Vítor Pereira said after Wolves’ 3-2 victory over West Ham, in which his striker scored a brace. “Because he’s a very important player. It’s not only about the technical and tactical, it’s about the character. He’s a player with character.
“Until now, Jørgen is our player. We’ll see what happens. I understand football. Football is football. Every player has a price, I believe. Even [Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo]. I understand football, but for me, he is very, very important for us. We’ll see what happens.”
MORE NEWCASTLE COVERAGE ON F365…
👉 Newcastle United in ‘toxic cesspool’; stop ‘scapegoating bullsh*t’ on Liverpool
👉 Newcastle ‘anticipating’ Liverpool ‘record bid’ for Isak as Reds ‘refuse’ to meet £150m asking price
He sounds very much like a manager accepting of his fate and we suspect if Wolves can source a suitable replacement they will bleed Newcastle as much as possible before letting Strand Larsen leave. But with just five days left of the transfer window, finding a new striker in a market seemingly bereft of even half-decent options, Wolves may indeed end up sticking to their ‘not for sale’ stance.
And if that is the case, we can only assume that Newcastle will turn to Jean-Philippe Mateta, who also scored 14 Premier League goals last season. A no from Crystal Palace would lead them to Fulham’s Raul Jimenez (12), followed soon after by Bournemouth’s Evanilson (10), before Newcastle finally end up signing Jamie Vardy (9) on a free transfer.
