It seems Malick Thiaw was not the only Serie A-based centre-back Newcastle United tried to sign this summer, if you believe a certain CEO’s claims today.
In early August, Newcastle struck a deal with AC Milan to bring the German international to St James’ Park, with the 24-year-old a long-term target after interesting dating back to 2023, as we exclusively revealed here at NUFC Blog.
However, via a post today from Fabrizio Romano, who seems intent on letting us know all the deals we ‘missed out on this summer’, it’s claimed that Newcastle were also in for a second centre-back that ended up elsewhere.
Parma CEO Federico Cherubini claims that Newcastle had a big offer turned down by the the Serie A side for 6ft 5″ Giovanni Leoni, who ended up sealing a £26m switch to Liverpool three weeks ago.
Speaking to Gazzetta di Parma, Cherubini claims that Newcastle placed a ‘higher offer’ than Liverpool, but ‘plans changed’ when Arne Slot’s side came calling:
“We rejected a higher offer from Newcastle for Leoni. But plans have changed with Liverpool”.
“This because the offer was very attractive and because Giovanni made it clear he was very happy to join Liverpool.”
Romano seemed to enjoy summer sagas that involved key targets like Benjamin Sesko or Hugo Ekitike picking a ‘big six’ side over Newcastle, and he’s now reporting another story that paints Newcastle in a bad light.
Perhaps we did go in for Leoni, an 18-year-old who was linked back in July, but I’m sure the club are very happy with long-term target Thiaw and perhaps only looked at the Italian teenager as a project signing able to become a star in a few years time.
Liverpool FC complete signing of Giovanni Leoni from Parma - Liverpool FC