Rolling coverage of the final day of the January transfer windowTransfer interactive – every deal from Europe’s top five leaguesUnited consider loan signings as King pursuit drags onAnd you can email Nick, tweet him here or post BTL 6.21pm GMT
Steve Bruce has revealed that Newcastle had a private plane booked and practically warming its engines up before Boubakary Soumare decided he wanted to stay at Lille rather than become a £35m Newcastle signing. The plan was for Bruce to fly to Northern
France and collect the 20-year-old France Under-21 midfielder last Sunday. “We thought we had a chance to bring him in but the boy changed his mind,” said Newcastle’s manager. “We had a plane booked but he’s only young and he’s been linked with a lot of top clubs.”
One player seemingly happy to be on Tyneside is Christian Atsu – the Ghana winger appears to have rejected a mooted loan move to Celtic in order to fight for his place at St James’ Park. Atsu, incidentally, is one of the nicest footballers I’ve interviewed. 6.16pm GMT
Swansea forward Borja Baston is travelling to Aston Villa for a medical. The Spanish striker, a once £15.5m record signing and one of the club’s highest earners, had travelled up to Preston on Friday ahead of Swansea’s game on Saturday but Baston is heading south now, ahead of Friday’s 11pm deadline. Baston started the season like a train, scoring six goals in nine matches, but has not scored since September. Swansea could also listen to offers for Tom Carroll and Nathan Dyer before the window closes.