Newcastle set to miss out on "Next Ayoze Perez"

Newcastle United had recently been heavily linked with Malaga striker Juanmi, who was viewed as an acquisition in the mold of Ayoze Perez.  It was hoped that the club would be able to sneak another young, highly regarded striker out of Spain, but it appears that those hopes have been dashed.

In a cruel twist, Southampton appear to have beaten Newcastle to the signature of the 22 year old.  This would be the same Southampton that erstwhile Toon manager Alan Pardew informed us (on a regular basis) that we could not compete with.  Ultimately, Juanmi was not nearly as "under the radar" as Ayoze was, and he was going to come at a higher price (Harry Redknapp informed everyone that his release clause was set at £5.5m*).

*may or may not be true, but 'arry is an expert on release clauses, so this seems plausible.

At the end of the day, it's disappointing to lose out on a bright talent, but realistically it always felt likely that we would see this occur.  With Ayoze Perez, Adam Armstrong, Tom Heardman, Alex Gillilead and Jonathyn Quinn among the ranks of young strikers at the club, Newcastle are not in poor shape with regards to development talents.  Could Juanmi have contributed sooner than some of the strikers just mentioned?  Likely.  It will put an added onus on acquiring new senior striking options for sure.  It does seem that based on price to age ratio, the soon-to-be Saint was more of an investment property for Mike Ashley anyway.