Frenchman joined the Ligue 1 champions for £19m last month.
Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley finally decided to sack director of football Joe Kinnear after the Irishman failed to extract the right price from mega-rich Ligue 1 outfit Paris Saint-Germain for coveted midfielder Yohan Cabaye, according to reports in the Daily Mirror.
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The unpopular 67-year-old was given his matching orders on Monday in the immediate aftermath of Cabaye’s move to the Parc des Princes.
However, it is now understood that the France international’s controversial switch to the big-spending Ligue 1 champions in the January transfer window – a move that was personally handled by Kinnear himself – was in the end the real reason behind the former Wimbledon manager’s departure from St James’ Park.
And that is because the Magpies owner had been seeking a transfer fee somewhere in the region of £25m for the Frenchman, who was the north east giants’ star player, only for Ashley to then discover that Cabaye had instead moved to the Parisians for just £19m.