Newcastle to be priced out of £10 million move

If Newcastle’s Papiss Cisse is the signing of the January transfer window, then Swansea midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson can’t be far behind. The one difference with the Icelander is that he’s only on loan in South Wales and due his form Swansea are unlikely to tie him down to a permanent deal, but Hoffenheim have made it clear that it will take a large fee to keep him in the Premier League.

Like Liverpool, Everton and now Manchester United, Newcastle have been credited with an interest in Sigurdsson, but Mirror Football are reporting that the Bundesliga club Hoffenheim who Gylfi is still contracted to have slapped a £10 million price tag on his head. That is likely to ward off many suitors and you can be sure that Newcastle wouldn’t be willing to pay that much for the 22-year-old, even if the Magpies were to qualify for the Champions League.

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Much like Cisse and Everton striker Nikica Jelavic, Gylfi Sigurdsson has certainly made an impact in his return to English football, scoring seven goals in 14 Premier League appearances. To be fair to the young Icelander, Sigurdsson’s scoring record wasn’t far off one in two during his two seasons at Reading and you have to ask why Hoffenheim let him go out on loan.

That decision hasn’t gone down too well with the fans of the Bundesliga club, as the supporters still sing his name and crave a return for him to Germany. Newcastle won’t step in the way of that given the value that Hoffenheim have given him and while the German club will just be looking to get as much money as they can for Sigurdsson, you’d think that even half of £10m is still a bit steep.

Now that Newcastle have made it into Europe they will find it easier to attract players to the north-east, but they will also face a new challenge from fellow clubs who will now expect the Magpies to have a bigger transfer budget and thus pay more to acquire players. This is something Newcastle will have to contend with and be wary that finding bargains will be harder than ever in the summer. A bargain is something Gylfi Sigurdsson can no longer be called.

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