Newcastle United fans found out on Sunday night that Johan Manzambi is now set to join Aston Villa.
The Freiburg midfielder had previously verbally agreed personal terms and a £49m deal had been agreed between United and Freiburg.
However, it was also made clear that any transfer would only be finalised after Switzerland had exited the World Cup.
David Ornstein of The Athletic broke the news on Sunday night that Johan Manzambi was indeed now finalising a move to the World Cup after Switzerland’s World Cup exit only hourse before. However, his destination set to be Villa Park and not St James’ Park.
Now more details have emerged on how this all played out, with Keith Downie of Sky Sports reporting in the aftermath of David Ornstein revealing Aston Villa as the club Manzambi is now set to sign for.
The Sky Sports reporter stating: ‘As reported on Thursday(Keith Downie had said then: ‘Newcastle have a verbal framework in place for the transfer of Johan Manzambi. They believe and hope they’ve got their man. The agreement is for £49m…The 20-year-old has also verbally agreed personal terms. Johan Manzambi however will not sign a contract until after he’s finished at The World Cup, so there is a degree of caution from Newcastle United given what happened with Victor Munoz. Other Premier League clubs hold an interest’) Newcastle were always aware and cautious of other Premier League interest (Villa and Man United) despite agreeing a framework of a deal with Freiburg for Johan Manzambi. The midfielder had verbally agreed personal terms with Newcastle United, but that doesn’t stop him doing the same with Villa and opting for them. Very similar to the Victor Munoz situation. Villa are now in the process of finalising a deal for the 20-year-old — but there is also a fear they may not be able to finance a deal at £49m. Newcastle never felt he was quite committed due to the lure of Champions League football with Aston Villa, and thought this may happen…)’
The picture that is now emerging clearly appears to show that whilst it was a shock for Newcastle United fans to hear the news on Sunday night, not so much for the club. Indeed, I think it appears that Newcastle United had already accepted that Johan Manzambi wasn’t going to be signing for NUFC and would end up elsewhere.
Indeed, David Ornstein also pointed to this as the reality when revealing the Aston Villa news on Sunday night.
The man from The Athletic reporting: ‘Aston Villa are in the process of finalising a move to sign midfielder Johan Manzambi from Freiburg. Manzambi looked on course to join Newcastle United after a club-to-club agreement was reached, but the 20-year-old had yet to decide on his preferred destination. That enabled Villa to accelerate their existing interest, which was heightened by the loss of Amadou Onana to a knee ligament injury. They have since intensified efforts to strike a deal with their Bundesliga counterparts and the player, who favours a move to Villa Park.’
David Ornstein going on to say: ‘The finances have never been an issue for Newcastle but other suitors were always in contention, which produced caution at St James’ Park about the chances of landing him. Newcastle accelerated on other targets in the background over the last week given the delay and had never been fully convinced he wanted to join.’
My understanding is that this type of thing happens far more than fans realise, that agents are continually getting potential deals in place, verbal agreements on personal terms and transfer fees, this in advance of a transfer eventually happening. Or indeed, another club ending up signing the player instead.
I have read plenty comments from Newcastle United fans wanting to believe that ‘transfer specialists’ publicising Newcastle United’s interest then tipped off other clubs and suddenly made them interested. I think this is far from reality and with Johan Manzambi, at the age of 19/20 he was one of the stand out young stars in the Bundesliga last season and then the same at this 2026 World Cup, in two sub appearances and two starts he scored three goals and got two assists, he was hardly an unknown!
As with all players, their agents will be talking to numerous clubs about their clients, trying to get as many options as possible, the best deal for the player (and the agents!!). Clearly the likes of Aston Villa and Man U have been well aware of and interested in Johan Manzambi for some time, the same with numerous other clubs as well.
The same applies to Victor Munoz, a young player who had a stand out season in La Liga and was good enough to make the Spain World Cup squad. When you also factor in that he had a release clause transfer fee in his contract, no wonder the likes of Liverpool as well as Newcastle United had a longstanding interest in him.
The pool of players who have done enough in other leagues to strongly suggest they might be capable of doing the same in the Premier League, especially those in attacking positions who score and create goals, in the modern day every club will be aware of these players with so much data available at the touch of a button. Not to mention every major club having large recruitment and scouting operations.
It is of course disappointing when Newcastle United miss out on a player they had hoped to sign but it is very naive to believe this doesn’t happen to other clubs as well on a regular basis.