By the end of this week, Newcastle expect to be able to unveil their second signing of this summer window.
According to The Telegraph (subscription required), Leicester City’s exciting Harvey Barnes is set to swap the Midlands for Tyneside, and join Eddie Howe’s revolution at St. James’ Park.
For some while now, Barnes was destined to be moving to east London as West Ham had apparently earmarked him as one of their priority signings.
However, it now seems any deal was dependant on the Declan Rice deal going through with Arsenal.
It’s been nine days since that deal was agreed but it still hasn’t been finalised, and The Sun note just how angry the Hammers have become over the whole saga.
Not least because it’s meant that they’ve lost out on Barnes, with their pain being Newcastle’s gain.
There are only four weeks left until the start of the 2023/24 Premier League, and despite West Ham coming off the back of a Europa Conference League final win, it appears that the entirety of their transfer budget is going to come from the money made on Rice’s sale.
That’s very typical of how the east Londoners do business, and it’s unlikely to get them very far bearing in mind that they’ll have a Europa League campaign to negotiate as well as domestic duties.
Clearly, David Moyes and David Sullivan will be hoping for some good news soon.