Johan Manzambi medical booked - Newcastle's hopes have ended

It looks as though Aston Villa has officially won the race to sign Johan Manzambi after the Swiss star snubbed Newcastle United.

While, unlike with Victor Munoz, there was never any agreement in place for Johan Manzambi, the fact that the Freiburg star has chosen Aston Villa has widely been reported as a 'hijack'. Sensationalism sells, what can we say?

Newcastle never actually felt like Manzambi was fully committed to the move to Tyneside despite positive talks, and when a Champions League club showed their hand, Manzambi showed his.

There were some inside Newcastle who hadn't given up on the deal, and when rumours started circulating that Johan Manzambi would reject the move to Villa following their agreement with Visit Rwanda, that hope increased. Rwanda have been committing war crimes against the Democratic Republic of Congo for over 30 years, and Manzambi's father is Congolese. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens when he's pictured holding the shirt with the Rwanda sponsor on.

Deal done

It's now looking as though that photo will indeed happen as Sky Sports Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg has posted on X that the deal is done.

Plettenberg has claimed that Manzambi's medical is booked in for Thursday and if all goes well there, Manzambi will become an Aston Villa player.

"🚨🩺 All done and sealed between the clubs. Johan Manzambi’s medical with Aston Villa is scheduled for Thursday."

And so we move on

It looks as though the dream is officially over for Newcastle, but there's still thought to be no cause for panic as there are other targets being worked on as we speak.

We can't wait to see if Johan Manzambi does what Sam Obisanya did on Ted Lasso with the sponsor and puts a load of tape over it. That would be epic.

On to the next one for Newcastle. Whoever that may be.