‘We were going to’ - Mike Ashley stopped Champions League icon joining Newcastle United
Newcastle United famously had Luka Modric on their radar long before his legendary 12-year association with Real Madrid
Sam Allardyce has revealed Newcastle United’s failed move for Luke Modric fell flat once Mike Ashley bought the club.
In one of Tyneside’s most well-documented what-could-have-been scenarios, the Magpies were chasing the six-time Champions League winner 16 years ago. Then a prodigy at Dinamo Zagreb, Modric was known to Premier League audiences as the kingpin behind England’s shock Euro 2008 downfall.
A tale of myth and legend has surrounded the saga, with Kevin Keegan famously hitting out at the Toon hierarchy. He once told a talk-in event: “We tried to sign Modric. Modric’s agent was a massive fan of mine and he was about to sign for Spurs.
“He hopped on a train to Newcastle and all we had to do was sell the club to him. Mr Jimenez said I’ve watched him, I don’t think he is big enough or strong enough to play in the Premier League. That was the end of that, he killed it stone-dead."
However, Modric - who won the Ballon d’Or in 2018 - has since refuted those claims and downplayed how close he was to joining Newcastle. Tottenham Hotspur ultimately won the race before he began a 12-year association with Real Madrid, where he remains.
Former Toon boss Allardyce preceded Keegan and was appointed just eight days before Ashley arrived. Speaking to Undr The Cosh podcast, the 69-year-old opened up about the Modric saga.
“This (the Newcastle job) was going to be a big challenge,” Allardyce said. “We went through the whole package of who we were going to get rid of and who we were going to bring in, but unfortunately the club got bought under Freddy’s nose and Mike came in.
“I needed six players because we got rid of the ones we talked about with Freddy, and then we were going to buy the ones we felt. We had Modric on our list, Luka Modric, he was £12million or something like that, but the budget didn’t happen.”