Newcastle pushing for Johan Manzambi decision after €60m agreement - Fabrizio Romano

Newcastle United are ready to step up their pursuit of Johan Manzambi following Switzerland's World Cup exit.

Johan Manzambi now has a decision to make on his future after Switzerland were sent packing from the World Cup by Argentina last night.

The 20-year-old could only watch on from the sidelines as Switzerland went down to 10 men and ultimately capitulated in extra time after putting up a very strong resistance to Lionel Messi and Co.

Sky Sports' Keith Downie claimed during the week that Manzambi would wait until after the World Cup before making a final decision on his future, but now that the Swiss are out, Newcastle will feel that now is the time.

Newcastle want Manzambi decision 

Indeed, Fabrizio Romano has claimed via X that Newcastle will reach out to Manzambi ASAP to nail down the terms of a summer switch.

His update on Sunday afternoon suggests that while an agreement is in place with Freiburg, we are still waiting for the player to commit, leaving the decision with Manzambi now Switzerland are out of the World Cup. 

"Newcastle will get in touch with Johan Manzambi’s camp to try close the agreement on personal terms.

"Agreement done days ago club to club with Freiburg — but green light from player and his camp still needed to get it sealed.

"Decision up to Manzambi."

It sounds like there's still work to do

There had been several reports claiming that Manzambi was keen on a move to Newcastle and that personal terms wouldn't be an issue, but Romano's post makes it sound like there's still plenty of work to be done, with Luke Edwards echoing the sentiments from Fabrizio Romano.

Everything is pretty much in place between Newcastle and Freiburg, but after such an impressive World Cup, it's highly unlikely that Newcastle will be the only ones at the table, so there's still a risk that Manzambi is waiting to see what his options are.

Newcastle are confident that they can get the deal done, which is expected to set them back around £49 million, but after the Victor Munoz debacle, there are certainly a few nerves around the deal.

Let's try a bit of positive mental attitude as a collective, and if we all will this to happen hard enough, maybe it will.