With a £40m price tag on his back, Joelinton’s critics haven’t been able to look past his transfer fee all season – and that could leave the club in a sticky situation next year if they are looking to add another striker.
Considering the Brazillian has just 34 games behind his back since moving to the North East, scoring three and assisting four in the process, the club may be worried that he is now only valued at £22.5m by Transfermarkt, nearly half of what he joined for in the summer.
Steve Bruce’s side have struggled for goals all season: no team has scored fewer goals in the Premier League, with their 25 from 29 being matched only by bottom-placed Norwich City.
Bearing that in mind, and that Joelinton has just one Premier League goal to his name, the club are reportedly going after Odsonne Edouard – valued at £13.5m by Transfermarkt – according to the Daily Star, which could, in turn, see the end of the Brazillian.
While the club will definitely want to see more of a return in their investment for the striker, they will be cautious that if Edouard joins, then his value is only going to decrease even further as he won’t be getting as much game time.
That could mean that if he is not looking like getting a look in, then they may opt to try and offload the player before his value dwindles even more. Transfermarkt state that he is still worth £22.5m, and if they sign a better replacement striker, then that doesn’t actually seem like that much of a bad deal – even if they do have to swallow a little bit of pride.
The report from Daily Star claims that the club would rather him than Morelos from their rivals at Rangers, but Neil Lennon’s team will allegedly fight “tooth and nail” to keep him at Celtic Park.
One possible negative is that the Star say that they will struggle to turn down a bid “in excess of £30m” – and if that is the fee they have to pay, then they may have to sell first.
So far this season the Frenchman has 21 goals and 12 assists to his name from 27 league games (33-goal contributions), so you can fully understand why Newcastle would want to add the player to their squad.
Nevertheless, while Newcastle may have a decent transfer kitty upcoming with Steve Bruce saying he wants to add ‘three or four’ quality players, so if only one of them is costing £30m, then they may need money in. Whether that comes through the sale of Joelinton or not, it is still likely to stall the progress of his Newcastle career, as he is probably going to be knocked down the pecking order – and that in itself could start the beginning of the end for the 23-year-old.