Subjectively speaking; Howay man, he can play in front of 52000 screaming Geordies, get pissed down the Quayside with lasses who have absolutely no morals. Newcastle's a bigger club and Leicester are a muggy little boring crisp shagger team from the midlands.
Objectively I don't disagree, but if there aren't any CL clubs interested he's got a choice between a club that, from the outside seems to be stagnating/regressing vs one that appears ambitious. Plus we should be able to provide a wage increase and all that. I mean there's the guff about being part of 'the process' and 'getting in on the ground level' and all that shit. But he's what, 25? He needs to be playing CL football within the next 4 years doesn't he? Don't think we're only 4yrs off Champions League football.
I think that's true. We're owned by disgustingly wealthy people, but we can't/won't yet spend hundreds of millions on star players. You could see that in our first window and this one. We've signed a couple of exciting players (Bruno, Botman and Trippier), we've signed some midtable quality (Burn, Targett, Pope) and paid £25m to relegate Burnley. We could afford to go off and buy Robinho-types, but what's the point? But that would fuck our FFP wriggle room. Plus, we're not getting into Europe this season and the top of the table is even harder to crack. Steady improvement is the plan.
But other clubs think just because the Blood money makes us look rich, we'll pay over the odds frivolously.
Also, how many fucking agents have claimed we're interested in their player, just to bump the price up?