Newcastle United have been left stunned by a dramatic change of heart from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, with TEAMtalk able to confirm that the proposed move to St James’ Park is currently off.
Newcastle had pushed ahead with plans to sign the former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder after opening talks with his representatives late last week.
The 31-year-old had initially given the green light to a return to England and looked set to make the move to Tyneside.
Newcastle had made significant progress towards an agreement with Marseille and believed they were closing in on a deal after Hojbjerg indicated in the last 48 hours that he was ready to join Matthias Jaissle’s new-look project.
But the Dane has now changed his mind.
Hojbjerg is no longer ready to move to Newcastle, and the Magpies have been left stunned by the U-turn, having believed they were on course to bring the experienced midfielder back to the Premier League.
The situation is particularly significant because Newcastle had prioritised Hojbjerg ahead of Joao Palhinha in their search for midfield experience.
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Newcastle had also held talks with Palhinha, but TEAMtalk understands the Portuguese is now set to join Aston Villa after he was given permission by Bayern Munich to leave this summer.
That leaves Newcastle having to reassess their midfield plans after switching their focus towards Hojbjerg.
Marseille sources, however, remain hopeful that the deal could yet be revived and believe there is still a possibility of finding a solution.
But as things stand, the Hojbjerg move is off and Newcastle are no longer expecting the transfer to go through in its current form.
Hojbjerg had been attracted by the Newcastle project under Jaissle and sporting director Ross Wilson, while the opportunity to return to the Premier League was understood to appeal strongly to him.
Newcastle had viewed his experience, leadership and knowledge of English football as major assets as they look to rebuild their midfield following the loss of senior options.
For now, though, the Magpies are back assessing alternatives, with their first-choice experience option having unexpectedly pulled the plug on a move that had appeared to be gathering serious momentum.
There remains a chance the situation could change again given Marseille’s willingness to keep talking, but Newcastle are currently moving forward on the basis that Hojbjerg will not be joining them.