It was Newcastle's Saudi owners who pulled the plug on William Osula’s deadline-day move to Frankfurt, Newcastle Confidential can reveal.
A permanent deal totalling around £30million was all but agreed with the Bundesliga club and Osula was ready to leave the Denmark national-team camp to complete the transfer. Newcastle had included a buy-back clause for the striker, who had only joined the club 12 months previously from Sheffield United.
However, Frankfurt changed the make-up of the deal late on and instead negotiated a loan with an option to buy.
That loan move was still set to go through until Newcastle’s majority owners, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, sent instruction for it to be cancelled.