Newcastle appear to have missed the boat when it comes to Swansea City winger Daniel James, as the Daily Mail understand Manchester United have reached an agreement to sign the Welshman.
It was thought that we, along with Everton, Brighton and Hove Albion and Leeds United, were interested in making a move this summer, but it appears the Old Trafford outfit have won the race by offering the most attractive transfer fee and wage.
Leeds had come close to singing the winger on Deadline Day in January, but Swansea pulled the plug in the eleventh hour as they felt the £10million option-to-buy dependent on promotion they had agreed was no longer representative of the talent their academy graduate possessed.
As it turns out, they were right, as the Daily Mail believe there is now an agreement in place for Manchester United to pay £15million to sign the 2-cap Wales international, who scored the winning goal against Slovakia in his competitive home debut under Ryan Giggs.
Sky Sports are also reporting that James has reached an agreement with United over his contract, and the 21-year-old is close to becoming the Red Devils’ first signing of the summer.
Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come, as we cannot, or rather will not, enter discussions to sign anyone until Mike Ashley and Rafa Benitez come to an agreement over the Spaniard’s future.
That could mean we miss the boat on signing West Bromwich Albion striker Salomon Rondon, or Club Brugge’s Wesley Moraes, as the pair are attracting interest from West Ham, as well as Eintracht Frankfurt full-back Jetro Willems, who is on AS Roma’s radar, or Spezia’s David Okereke.
It would have been hard to see where James fitted into Benitez’s plans for next season, though, unless the boss felt Ayoze Perez was on his way out of the club and thus needed another right-sided forward.
During his breakthrough campaign at the Liberty Stadium in the season just gone, James created ten goals in all competitions and scored five, including a blitz down the centre of the pitch in the FA Cup to send Swansea through to a Sixth Round showdown with Manchester City.