Newcastle Transfers: Magpies Mess Up Ali Deal And FORCE Santon Out

By Simon Gallagher / February 2, 2015

Another deadline day, another big name player sold by Newcastle United. In truth, Davide Santon's loss to Inter Milan isn't too much of a major concern, because of the emergence of Massadio Haidara and Paul Dummett's ability to cover at full-back, but it's once again the club's approach to conducting business that has left a bad taste in fans' mouths. Santon is set to join Inter Milan on loan for the rest of the season, with a view to a permanent £4m deal in the summer, and while that is a legal requirement of all loans involving Italian clubs, it seems they're very much motivated by recouping some of the money they paid to sign him. That is at least according to Santon's girlfriend, who has taken to Twitter to launch an astonishing attack on the club. She claims that Santon was forced out, despite not wanting to leave (or wanting to go to a club where a permanent deal at the end of it wasn't assured) and that the club were deceitful when they claimed no knowledge of the deal earlier in the day.

Perhaps that's just an emotional response by a woman whose life is being turned up by her partner's career and is helplessly lashing out, but it's hard not to see the precedent. Meanwhile, Newcastle seem to have conspired to mess up their chances of completing a deal to sign Delle Ali from MK Dons as was reported a couple of weeks ago. It was thought the highly rated player would join and then be loaned back to the MK Dons, but now Tottenham look set to complete the same deal instead. Another missed opportunity.