Newcastle United are considering moves for Lille forward Matias Fernandez-Pardo and highly-rated Real Betis winger Abde Ezzalzouli after suffering the bitter blow of missing out on Victor Munoz.
They will pivot from Munoz against the backdrop of deep scepticism from supporters that they are capable of pulling off the sort of deals that will reignite the PIF project. Insiders push back against that – pointing out that they beat Chelsea, Real Madrid and Tottenham to sign goalkeeper Ewen Jaouen – but in mid-June they find themselves in a position they did not want to be, scrambling for momentum in a crucial summer.
It’s been stressed that they are working on alternative deals, although nothing is believed to be imminent. There had been real confidence that a move for Spain winger Munoz could be wrapped up before the weekend, but he is now going to Liverpool in a depressing repeat of the Hugo Ekitike saga last year.
There’s no point in denying it – Newcastle sources are frustrated at how the Munoz deal has played out and it represents a blow. There’s an acceptance the optics are bad and that the challenge now is to not let the transfer window spiral in the way it did last summer.
A deeper pool of targets than they had then should help. They are capable of moving onto targets that don’t represent the sort of drop off that last year’s Plan Bs did. Panic was the problem last year.
