Why Newcastle failed to pull off January signing of Boubakary Soumaré | OneFootball

Newcastle came close to pulling off quite a coup in January in their chase for Lille standout Boubakary Soumaré.

The midfielder is one of the hottest prospects in Ligue 1 and is on the radar of several sides, including Manchester United and Arsenal.

During the winter window, the Magpies were reasonably active, by securing loan deals for Valentino Lazaro, Danny Rose and Nabil Bentaleb.

According to the Chronicle, they almost added a fourth signing with Soumaré, who they had a bid (believed to be €35 million) accepted for in their bid to strengthen in midfield.

Steve Bruce and Newcastle officials were then booked to travel to Lille to meet the 21-year-old and discuss personal terms relating to a move to St James’ Park.

However, Soumaré backed out of any deal at that point as he wanted to keep his options open and see which clubs pursued him during the summer.

It is unclear whether or not Newcastle will revive their interest in the midfielder when the transfer window does eventually reopen.

After refusing to join the Magpies in January, Soumaré found himself frozen out for much of the second half of the season as punishment.

Canal Plus made the claim that with the club struggling financially, they were desperate for the deal to go through and thus frustrated at their player for not making that happen.