· 7 July 2025, 10:00
**Last week, everything looked to be falling into place for Newcastle United in terms of transfers, with talks progressing over deals for James Trafford and Anthony Elanga.**
Since those positive updates, though, things have gone very quiet. The James Trafford thing has fallen deathly silent, but there is still confidence that a deal can be done for the young goalkeeper.
Conflicting reports have come out around the £55 million offer for Anthony Elanga, with some outlets reporting that the offer is set to be accepted, while others claim talks are still ongoing.
The longer things have dragged on, the more it has felt like the latter is true, and now Craig Hope has provided a slightly worrying update on X.
> [](https://twitter.com/CraigHope_DM/status/1941920016724537684)
Craig Hope says the Elanga deal is 'complicated'
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The Daily Mail scribe was the one who broke the story about the £55 million bid, but his latest update sows a few seeds of doubt around the deal.
> "I understand an agreement for Anthony Elanga between Newcastle & Forest remains close but it’s also complicated & some of the details are still being worked on. There is hope it will get sorted, but until those details are agreed…"
It started off nice and positive, suggesting that the deal was 'close', but adding that things are 'complicated' is certainly less than ideal.
The Newcastle squad returned to training today with no new faces to welcome
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We're sure it's just a case of Hope covering his back in case anything happens, but the last thing Newcastle needs right now is a big transfer falling apart when things were looking so good.
Eddie Howe and the players are back in training today, and now that the holiday season has ended, we will hopefully see another step up in effort.
Although we're sure Howe won't be happy that his squad has returned to training, and he has no new players to introduce as he requested.