Three local journalists; Miles Starforth with the Shields Gazette, Keith Downie with Sky Sports, and Lee Ryder with the Chronicle have all confirmed that the deal for Ayoze Perez will be for £30m and not the £16m as reported by the Daily Star earlier today.
This may have been an amount inserted into his contract as a release clause. Here are the three tweets by the local journalists:
Leicester close to signing Ayoze Perez. Deal worth up to £30m to Newcastle. Personal terms being discussed. #nufc #lcfc
— Miles Starforth (@milesstarforth) July 2, 2019
BREAKING: Newcastle agree a deal with Leicester to sell Ayoze Perez for £30m. Player needs to have a medical and agree personal terms. #NUFC
— Keith Downie (@SkySports_Keith) July 2, 2019
#nufc have agreed a fee on Ayoze Perez. Fee is £30million and will be pushed back into the transfer kitty.
— Lee Ryder (@lee_ryder) July 2, 2019
So it does appear that a fee of £30m has been accepted by Mike Ashley and Newcastle United for the reportedly want-away player. This is fair value for Ayoze if he was determined to leave.
Graeme Bailey had earlier reported that Ayoze Perez was not going to sign a new contract and with only 2 years remaining on his current deal, now may have been the only time to sell for maximum value.
Ayoze Perez is heading to Leicester City – told Newcastle last summer he wouldn’t sign a new deal and wanted out, whether Rafa Benitez stayed or not – now a deal to the King Power is almost done. Interesting move by Brendan Rodgers.
— Graeme Bailey (@GraemeBailey) July 2, 2019
We are very disappointed to see that Ayoze will leave and now play for another Premier League club. We feel that he is justified in wanting to leave, as five years at a club run by Mike Ashley has to be frustrating. However, we think there could have been better opportunities for him if he had waited.
It looks like he may have jumped at the first option that presented itself to him. This may be a common theme this summer with our squad.
We hope that Lee Ryder is accurate in his assertion that the £30m will be pushed into the transfer kitty. However, we have our doubts as Mike Ashley has never done that in his time at Newcastle despite claims to the contrary. We have no reason to believe he will at this point in time either.
Then again maybe this can be combined with the Wijnaldum, Sissoko, and Mitrovic money and we could have quite the kitty on our hands. Assuming that the summer of 2015 was when he spent the Andy Carroll and Yohan Cabaye money.
But the fee does not really matter in any case. We will now have to replace Ayoze Perez and in the current market wide forwards are very expensive as they play such a vital role in the modern game.
Ayoze Perez joined Newcastle in July of 2014 for about £1.5m from Tenerife. He made 195 appearances for Newcastle with 48 goals and 17 assists.
This article was originally posted here