Newcastle United thought they were closing in on an exciting attacker. Then Liverpool swooped in at the last and took him to Anfield. Newcastle thought wrong and it went wrong.Sound familiar? It should.For Hugo Ekitike last July, read Victor Munoz, the 22-year-old winger who has ended up on Merseyside in a €40million deal (£34.7m, $45.9m) after Liverpool met his release clause at Spanish club Osasuna. History has repeated itself, which does not make it any easier to take for Newcastle and their fans.So what happened this time? And who will Newcastle turn to next?The Athletic’s Chris Waugh and George Caulkin discuss the significance of missing out on Munoz to the club’s summer plans…What happened?Chris Waugh: Within 24 hours, Newcastle went from having a medical lined up, to suddenly there being a delay from Munoz’s side — before they found out he was heading to Liverpool.While suggestions in Spain claim Newcastle made verbal proposals but did not necessarily agree a price, the Tynesiders are adamant they had a bid of around €33.5million (£29m, $38.4m), plus a possible €5m more in add-ons, accepted earlier this week. They also insist they had full agreement with Munoz, who told them he wanted to come, and on the agent commission, plus an arrangement with Real Madrid, his previous club, to have a time-dependent matching-rights clause should the winger be sold.There had been rival interest all along, including from Liverpool and Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen.Newcastle tried to prevent negotiations from playing out in public and felt confident heading into this week that Munoz would become their player, with a delegation on standby ready to conclude the deal in the United States, given that the player is in Spain’s World Cup squad.Ultimately, Munoz chose a different option, and that was Liverpool. Again.Munoz is currently away at the World Cup with Spain (Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)George Caulkin: “Events, dear boy. Events.” So said Harold Macmillan, the former British Prime Minister, when asked what the greatest challenge was for a leader. In other words, a plan which appears perfect can be upended by stuff actually happening. This applies to football as much as it does to politics. Newcastle do not operate in a vacuum.The question here is how much Newcastle attempted to shape events? Were they used? Was there enough urgency in their approach? This feels important, given that release clause.Sadly, they cannot compete with Liverpool when it comes to wages, cachet or Champions League football next season, which means there was an onus on them to be smarter, quicker, better.So why didn’t Newcastle just pay the release clause, then?Waugh: A very fair question, which supporters are asking.Newcastle insist the clause was not cited by Osasuna during discussions, even if they knew of its existence, and had instead negotiated a fee significantly below that figure.There was a financial benefit to doing that from an SCR (the Premier League’s squad-cost rules) perspective, but that was not necessarily their primary rationale. The analogy offered is that if a house is on the market for £1million, but you can get it for £750,000, why would you pay the higher amount?Securing a deal sooner was also complicated by Real Madrid’s recent presidential election. Until Florentino Perez was re-elected on June 7, terms could not be fully thrashed out. Once that happened, Ross Wilson, the sporting director, was in regular talks for around 10 days and all elements of the transfer were in place, Newcastle insist.