Here's the thought process behind the majority of transfer rumours that you will see as a Newcastle fan over the next couple of months heading into the January transfer window: the club have no money, no real intent to buy anyone (maybe a centre-half, but who knows) and like bargains. Some will ignore those points entirely, and just claim we're in the running for £25m rated defensive midfielders left, right and centre, but the majority of links will be for players in the last year of their contracts, or who are affordable thanks to a lack of form or some release clause. And also, inevitably, players called Andy Carroll. That is clearly the thinking behind the "rumour" that Argentinian midfielder Nicolas Gaitan might be an option in January from Benfica. He's in the last year of his contract, and thus would likely be available for less than his £15m market value, so there's scope there for a bargain with a higher sales price from Newcastle's point of view. The only issue is that there's more chance of Peter Beardsley signing for Newcastle again than the Argentinian. And you can read it in the source of the rumour - the ever reliable TalkSport - who have jumped immediately beyond even linking the player to just saying he's going to sign somewhere else. No flirtation, no courtship, just a flat out rejection - and it's mostly because there was never any hope of us signing him, even if he was ever under-consideration (and why would he be with so many attacking midfielders still officially on the books?). The truth is, he will probably go somewhere like Monaco; not just because they are a money-bags club, but because they can offer European football to a player who should be used to it by now. And Newcastle will be stuck with signing James Tomkins as we're all told that he is a future England captain, or some such drivel. If Newcastle were to sign Gaitan - or even try to sign him - you'd have to accept that they were lying about the importance and impact of Gabriel Obertan (too bold a statement to be a lie), or the potential of Rolando Aarons, and also that they'd given up on Remy Cabella already. That would be a pretty big perfect storm of requirements, and there's just no chance the club would look at a player consciously driving their contract down to get a bigger pay-off. Newcastle only scout in France, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and Germany predominantly, so if they've sent scouts to Portugal to watch Benfica, it's been kept nice and quiet - which is perhaps why Talksport made a non-committal reference to him being scouted on multiple occasions. Nice thought, but there's more chance of seeing the Pope bearing his holy knickers in Fenwick's window.
