With news breaking that Aston Villa have agreed a fee with Sevilla for Newcastle target, Diego Carlos after this morning being credited with an interest in Sven Botman, it seems like they’re just reading the ‘papers to see who Newcastle have an interest in and jumping on the bandwagon.
In January, Newcastle were relentlessly linked with Phillipe Coutinho, who ended up at Villa Park and it seems that everyone Newcastle are linked with, Villa also seem to have an interest in, and now in the cases of Coutinho and Carlos, are beating Newcastle to the punch.
Obviously, the reality is Newcastle and Villa are both fishing in the same pond. As much as the Magpies have their new riches, they are hampered by FFP and not being able to offer European football, which keeps them grounded in terms of the caliber of players they can realistically attract.
The frustration comes from the speed in which the respective clubs act. Villa seem to act much quicker than Newcastle leaving the Toon Army cursing to the skies.
That being said, this is all speculation based on media stories. We have no real knowledge as to whether Diego Carlos was still a genuine target this Summer, or if Coutinho was even on the list of players we were looking at in January.
Given that Newcastle are linked with every player under the sun, we are going to see us lose out on many players we’ve been linked with, but that doesn’t mean they were genuine targets. We, as fans, need to remain calm and trust Eddie Howe and the owners to get the right deals done, like they did in January.