Newcastle United’s summer transfer business is being held up due to a complicated transfer merry-go-round, according to various reports.
West Ham have now confirmed the signing of Andriy Yarmolenko, which, according to Football London, should allow Michail Antonio to leave The London Stadium for Crystal Palace.
Sky Sports claim Antonio’s prospective transfer would then allow Andros Townsend to complete a move to Newcastle United, who are interested in signing their former winger.
This transfer would then allow Matt Ritchie to complete his reported move to Stoke City, with the Stoke Sentinel reporting their interest in the winger’s signature.
OPINION
Well, this is complicated. What happened to good old-fashioned transfer business? Normally, you sell a player before you can buy one, it’s a simple financial equation. But now, clubs want to buy before they sell, as they want to secure a replacement before letting someone go. This will have implications for all of the clubs, as their having to wait on someone else before they can do their business, and there’s no guarantee if that deal will eventually go through, so they may just waste valuable time in an already short transfer window. Newcastle are the most impacted in this scenario because they are at the back of the chain and are having to wait the longest for a number of clubs to complete deals. At least they’ve managed to sign Kenedy because they might have to wait a while to sign Townsend based on the number of other clubs that need to do business first.
