{"id":1048,"date":"2025-06-21T01:42:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T01:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1048\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T01:42:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T01:42:09","slug":"18-year-old-defender-turned-down-attractive-offer-from-newcastle-united-to-join-man-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1048\/","title":{"rendered":"18-year-old\u00a0defender turned down \u2018attractive\u2019 offer from Newcastle United to join Man United"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sporting director Paul Mitchell has left Newcastle United after less than a year in the role having failed to make a single signing for Eddie Howe\u2019s first-team.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The whole saga now looks like it was always going to fail, despite the 43-year-old having a great reputation upon joining.<\/p>\n

Having signed on the recommendation of Newcastle United<\/a> CEO Darren Eales, Paul Mitchell<\/a> went about implementing his own transfer plan at the club, with his thought process being to sign younger players who can be developed by Eddie Howe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sadly, that was barely the case, as Mitchell failed to make any first-team signings aside from William Osula, who was a recommendation from assistant manager Jason Tindall. It looks even worse when fans realise Mitchell had the chance to sign Marc Guehi for Newcastle<\/a> during the 2024 summer transfer window, but ended up getting frustrated at his failed pursuit.<\/p>\n

Now, a new report has shared shocking information about another deal that Newcastle missed out on to their historic rivals, Manchester United. It has proven to be a major missed opportunity.<\/p>\n

\"AydenPhoto by Manchester United\/Manchester United via Getty ImagesNewcastle United missed out on signing Ayden Heaven to Manchester United<\/p>\n

The January transfer window was also considered a disaster by many Newcastle fans after Mitchell failed to make any signings while selling the likes of Lloyd Kelly<\/a> and Miguel Almiron<\/a>, who were considered useful squad players at the time.<\/p>\n

Newcastle missed out on Abdukodir Khusanov to Manchester City<\/a>, despite being the favourites to sign him from RC Lens at the time. PSR was a catalyst for the failed move, but fans were still furious at how the deal collapsed.<\/p>\n

Now, it has been revealed by the Athletic<\/a> that Newcastle were in talks for 18-year-old defender Ayden Heaven before he completed his \u00a31.5m move to Manchester United. The report states that Newcastle offered a \u201cmore attractive package\u201d to Heaven, and may have even offered double the money that Man United were offering, but the youngster ended up moving to Old Trafford instead.<\/p>\n

Jason Willcox, Man United\u2019s director of football, persuaded Heaven to sign by giving assurances that he would settle quickly in their environment and would be fast-tracked into a first-team role under Ruben Amorim.<\/p>\n

The offer was clearly too good to refuse, and he has since become a bright spark in a Man United side that has been dismal at times.<\/p>\n

Paul Mitchell\u2019s negotiation skills worked at Newcastle United despite the Ayden Heaven saga<\/p>\n

While Mitchell\u2019s 12 months on Tyneside will be seen as disastrous by many, he was still able to do some clever business for the club.<\/p>\n

A lot of his focus appeared to be on the academy, with promising young players like Kyle Fitzgerald and Baran Yildiz joining Newcastle<\/a> during the January transfer window. Those two deals have proven to be successful so far, with the pair hitting the ground running in their new environment.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Antonio Cordero rejected Barcelona for Newcastle<\/a> and is expected to be a hit at the club after a promising season with Segunda Division side Malaga.<\/p>\n

Cordero will be loaned out for his first season at Newcastle<\/a>, with reports suggesting that he will sign for Eredivisie side Ajax. It is a big step up in quality, but one that Cordero will surely be ready for.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sporting director Paul Mitchell has left Newcastle United after less than a year in the role having failed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[1524,221,62,1525,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-1048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ayden-heaven","9":"tag-soccer","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-transfer-news","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114718817865578355","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}