Steve Bruce has revealed Newcastle came close to matching their £40million transfer record as they launched a big-money swoop for a midfielder. Bruce said: “We had a bid accepted that would have nearly got us to our record transfer eight days ago, where we had it accepted by the club and unfortunately, the player wanted to stay where he was. “We were active – we were really, really active and it didn’t quite happen. “We were close to it (the club’s record transfer) again, but couldn’t get it over the line, which is a big disappointment to us. However, Bruce insisted he had been told nothing is imminent on that front.

Source: Irish Examiner January 31, 2020 12:33 UTC