Keith Downie shares Newcastle United hijack fear as Johan Manzambi deal nears

While Sky Sports Germany is reporting that Newcastle United and Freiburg have agreed a £51m deal for Johan Manzambi, reports from this side of the deal tell a different story.

Newcastle are closing in on a deal for Swiss sensation Johan Manzambi, who remains on international duty with Switzerland at the World Cup despite being injured.

It was reported on Thursday by Florian Plettenberg that the two clubs had reached an agreement on a €60m (£51m) deal, but Sky Sports reporter Keith Downie has since taken to YouTube to suggest that the deal isn't as far advanced as Plettenberg would have us believe.

It was Downie who broke the news about Newcastle's interest in Manzambi a couple of weeks ago, and in doing so reassured fans that his reporting the story won't affect the deal.

Keith Downie knew more than he was telling us weeks ago

In his latest video, Downie admits that he knew more than he was letting on at the time, suggesting that this deal has been close for a while.

However, Newcastle are still a bit shell-shocked after what happened with Liverpool and Victor Munoz, so they are understandably trying to keep their transfer business quiet in a bid to get deals done before they can be hijacked.

Newcastle are close to getting the deal done for Manzambi, but there's still an understandable fear that another club could swoop in at the 11th hour.

Could Bruno's potential exit affect incomings?

The conflicting stories could literally just be a case of different contacts on different sides of the deal relaying different information.

We're not popping the champagne yet, but we're pretty confident that Johan Manzambi will be a Newcastle United player come the start of the season.

Although with what's going on with Bruno Guimarães, we do worry that Manzambi could be having second thoughts as he watches as Newcaslte's best players leave the club.