De Jong deal dead in the water?

No hope for de Jong deal? Well it looks as though any deal for FC Twente striker is dead in the water, for now anyway.

Apparently a delegation was sent over to the Netherlands last weekend with the hope of tying up a deal although now it would appear that Steve McClaren has his wish and, as things stand, de Jong remains one of his charges.

Progress has been slow moving throughout and to be fair to McClaren and Twente they have maintained that it would take "silly money" to prize away one of their hottest prospects, because at just 21-years-old de Jong should still be classed as a prospect more than anything else, according to McClaren anyway, who feels his star striker should have one more season at FC Twente before moving on.

Rumour has it that Newcastle have submitted a £10m "take it or leave it" offer for the Netherlands international, but at this present time it would appear that FC Twente have decide to leave it there.

"We do not have to sell and, football being football, everybody has his price," McClaren told Sky Sports News.

"For Luuk de Jong to leave this club then it will have to be a very good offer, one that we cannot refuse, and at the moment no-one has given us that yet. There are more than just rumours. There is obvious interest as everyone knows."

"Of course we want to keep Luke de Jong and we want to keep our squad of players as it is. We want to build and not to take players away. We have already sold Ola John and I have told the club I do not want to sell any more."

"I would advise Luke to spend another year establishing himself in Holland doing it again, getting 25 or 30 goals and being a top striker, another year more mature, another year closer to the national team as he is in the squad now."

Part of the problem is that FC Twente know they have a player who is in high demand and will, rather sensibly and rather like Newcastle United would do, try and extract the most money they can for any deal involving de Jong. You can't really fault them for that.

However it's not something that Newcastle United tend to get involved in on the buying front. We offer what we think a player is worth and if that isn't good enough then we move on for the time being, although as we've seen with Papiss Cisse, we may return if the price becomes right in the future.

Any hope of a move now hinges on the desire of Luuk de Jong. If he wants a move away it would appear that he will have to force the issue himself. Presumably the player wants away which is why his agent has urged FC Twente to demand only a "fair market value" for his client.

"We've made it clear to Twente that De Jong is ready for his next step," Louis Laros told Voetbal International.

"The important thing considered by him will be how serious the sporting project is. We are not overly concerned about the money, what matters more to De Jong is the club's plans and how they plan to use him."

He added: "I hope that Twente do not lose sight of reality though, and demand only a fair market price."

Personally I think it's dad in the water. It just seems to me that this whole affair doesn't match up with the way that Newcastle have gone about things in the last few years. From the publicity to the quotes to everything else involved, it just doesn't appear to be as cloak and dagger as the club like it to be.

Will or won't it happen?