It appears that the temptation of playing for Eddie Howe’s Newcastle and working under a board with apparent unlimited wealth doesn’t appeal to everyone.
The Magpies are back in the Champions League for the first time in an age and have a squad to die for that have been playing brilliant football under Howe.
One can’t help but feel that Newcastle are at the beginning of something really special and the expectation is that any player that the club show apparent interest in would want to come along for the ride.
That’s a memo that Eintracht Frankfurt star, Evan Ndicka, clearly hasn’t received.
According to Newcastle World, the player is set to join Serie A giants, Roma, after turning down a new contract at his current club.
The 23-year-old centre-back who can also fill in at left-back would have been a fine addition to Howe’s swashbuckling first-team squad, given his average of winning 2.3 aerial battles and a pass completion success rate of 85 percent, via WhoScored.
From the Saudi Public Investment Fund and Howe’s point of view, there’s bound to be some disappointment that they’ve not been able to land one of their targets, though they will just have to dust themselves down and move on to their Plan B or C.
Ndicka’s apparent reticence to move to the north east of England isn’t likely to be shared by too many others either, particularly if such a move offers them genuine hope of winning silverware over the next few years.