Newcastle United deal for 'greedy' Chelsea star hijacked in hidden transfer blow

Tosin Adarabioyo had looked set to join Newcastle on a free transfer from Fulham in the summer. That was until Chelsea hijacked the move.

The 27-year-old was named on the bench, where he has found himself in the Premier League this season, for the visit of the Magpies. And while he didn’t get on the pitch, the travelling supporters were still able to make their feelings known.

When Wesley Fofana went down injured in the 11th minute, Adarabioyo was sent to warm up in front of the away end, who chanted “greedy -------” and ‘who the ------- hell are you?’. The defender at least took it well, affording a cheeky smirk on the touchline.

The irony is, United might have been better for having Adarabioyo in their team after head coach Eddie Howe was forced to defend both Fabian Schar and Dan Burn after the game, both of whom were given the run around by goalscorers Nicolas Jackson and Cole Palmer.

“I’d say they’ve [Schar and Burn] done outstandingly well for a long period of time, both players, in different positions,” said Howe. Dan has played left-back for us as well.

“I think they’ve defended fine, I don’t think that’s been our issue this season. We conceded two goals [at Chelsea], and we’re disappointed with that, but I think the disappointment for us has generally been the other way.

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“In possession, we’ve been uncharacteristically off. But of course we’ll always look at how we play, and the balance of our team, and try to make those decisions to win us games.”

Newcastle mainly have problems at the top end of the pitch with only Southampton, Wolves, Crystal Palace and Manchester United scoring less.

Securing Adarabioyo alongside Lloyd Kelly- who arrived on a free transfer transfer from AFC Bournemouth - could have, in theory, allowed United to focus on signing an attacking player, rather than the £70million pursuit of Marc Guehi.

That said, Howe say: "I don't think it's that simple, but we were exploring a few free transfer deals that we feel could have certainly given us a bit more freedom. When you're in our position, with PSR being very tight, you have to be creative.

“We were looking at the free transfer market and Lloyd Kelly was one we feel was really smart business. I don't think it's right for me to talk about other individual targets, but certainly that's something we did explore.”

Instead, Newcastle recruited no-one of significance and that is undoubtedly working against them as they loiter in the bottom half of the league table after nine games.